Sir, - Brendan O Cathaoir's account of the affray at Dolly's Brae (An Irishman's Diary, July 5th) does not accord with the evidence preserved in the National Archives of Ireland or in the report of Walter Berwick QC's commission of inquiry, which is available in public libraries.
The Orangemen did not pass Dolly's Brae by "a circuitous route"; the alternative was longer, admittedly by less than a mile, but "circuitous" and its implication of coat-trailing does not apply. Lord Roden was not Head of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, merely Deputy County Grand Master of Co Down. The inquest Mr O Cathaoir mentions was upon the bodies of four local Catholics, not 20, and it concluded that those responsible were members of the Orange procession. It is true to say that no person was made amenable for these murders; nor, however, was any person made amenable for the murder of Thomas Linten, the only one of four Orangemen injured in the incident to die.
Lord Roden may have feasted the Orangemen at Tollymore, if giving them biscuits can be so described; and as for the Orangemen "being excited by loyal toasts", Lord Roden's speech, reported by newspapers and in the commissioner's report, called for calm and dignity.
All this is poor enough, but Mr O Cathaoir's report of the actual "battle" has as little historical accuracy as the ballad he quotes (and less than some of the 12 different ballads I know of). Here are some real facts:
The "Ribbonmen" (for so those opposing the march were described) - about 700 of them - had moved from Dolly's Brae to Magheramayo Hill and the "Big Fort" about a mile west, overlooking either side of the road. They were positioned in the rath and in two lines behind walls on the hill. The march had almost passed this point when the men on the hill fired, first two shots and then a volley. Fire was returned from the procession.
The police and Captain Skinner (a stipendary magistrate - not a local man), who had been at the head of the procession, had halted opposite the positions on the hill. The sub-inspector asked and was given authority to charge the hill. These men, approximately 35 in number, did so and dislodged the occupants, firing 18 shots in the process. It was stated at the inquiry that had the Ribbonmen fired sooner there would have been carnage in the procession and that the police charge (between the fires of the Ribbonmen and the return fire of the procession) had averted much danger for both sets of antagonists.
Currently I am away from home and divorced from notes, but there is more and I'll be glad to debate it further. Suffice it to say that, if the rest of Mr O Cathaoir's account strays as far from the evidence as his account of the "battle" and makes similar emotional points, it would be a poor foundation for any opinion about the actual behaviour of Lord Roden, the Orangemen, the "people of the glen" (and it isn't a glen - I've been there) and the politicians.
Juxtaposing such an article against accounts of Drumcree served neither history nor mutual understanding. - Yours, etc.,
John Moulden, Apollo Walk, Portrush, Co Antrim.
Brendan O Cathaoir writes: While Mr Moulden's letter contains intriguing information, two salient points remain. Firstly, the Orangemen did not return the way that they went after being feasted at Tollymore. (Was Lord Roden's hospitality really limited to biscuits?) Secondly, regarding the dismissal of Roden and two of his colleagues, the Lord Lieutenant commented 150 years ago: "When I received Berwick's report and the evidence and found how much the loss of life . . . and the brutal outrages committed . . . were attributable to the indiscretion and party spirit of the Magistrates I could come to no other conclusion than that they ought to be removed from the Bench." (Clarendon Papers, Oxford).