`Please allow me" writes Mrs Hanna Sheehy-Skeffinton, "to correct an error in your notes of November 17th. I did not `stretch the terms of reference at the anti-vivisection meeting by talking about the executions of 1916.' I gave an instance of the mercifulness to animals of Padraic Pearse, who sent a Volunteer to put out of pain a wounded horse, belonging to the Lancers, who had charged the G.P.O. on Easter Monday.
"Probably the gentlemen hooligans, `out for a night's fun,' prevented your correspondent from hearing me properly. "It is quite true that there were some serious opponents who had questions to ask, but these were prevented, not by chair or platform, as you suggest, but by the ill-considered and persistent rowdyism of the medical students, who tried several times to rush the platform. So the interrupters defeated their purpose.
"The innocent and spontaneous merriment at references to boiling water thrown over a dog, and the ribald cat-calls that greeted any reference to a female dog's tortures gave a taste of their quality.
"As for the `tact' of the police towards `bunches of grinning young men, who looked too respectable to misbehave,' that is nothing new. Police are always chary of interfering with the well-dressed. Had the interrupters been, say, ragged unemployed, not out for a lark, but to voice some grievance, or hecklers at a Minister's meeting, the police might have shown more spirit."
The Irish Times, November 22nd, 1939.