This book tells the story of the shooting of Philip Meehan, a tenant farmer from the townland of Corraleehanbeg on the Cavan/Leitrim border, who was shot by Henry B. Acheon, a young landlord from Croghan in County Roscommon, on 14 June 1880. 

It was Michael Davitt, the leader of the Land League, who described Philip Meehan as the first fatality of the Land War.