Sir, - Brendan O Cathaoir's response to my letter (July 13th) is no better than his initial effort. The Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the affray at Dolly's Brae made it quite clear that the same route was followed morning and afternoon. The report also paraphrases Lord Roden: "I had desired a field to be prepared, where a platform was erected, in which were some cold meat and luncheon for ladies and gentlemen who came to look at the assembly." He had also provided six barrels of small beer, "for any of the Orangemen who came to visit me and had not brought provisions, together with bread and cheese or biscuit." This "biscuit" would not have been like modern biscuits, but hard cakes of unleavened bread, like oatcakes or ship's biscuit.
There was no difference in the routes, there is no evidence of a feast - rather the contrary - so Mr O Cathaoir has done nothing but compound his offence.
However, he is not alone. I have seen no account which follows the evidence. I hold no brief for Lord Roden, but my view is that his offence was that of complacency, not that of fomenting a riot. Lord Londonderry wrote to him (part of a series of exchanges in the Vane/Tempest papers at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland) that he had thought that "acting on the bench to try the affair in which. . .you had been compromised, would turn out fatal to your own position. . ." Mr O Cathaoir refered to this, saying that Roden "presiding at Castlewellan Petty Sessions, refused to take evidence against the Orange rioters." It is true that the bench refused, by a majority, to hear the evidence but Lord Roden was not the chairman and the responsibility was not his alone.
I must myself plead guilty to one error of fact. My letter was written from memory and in it I said, correcting Mr O Cathaoir's assertion that the procession had been led by Lord Roden's agent accompanied by a magistrate, that Captain Skinner was a stipendary magistrate, not a local man; he was in fact Lord Downshire's agent at Dundrum, about six miles from Castlewellan. His reason for going to Dolly's Brae was that he thought he could have influence on the Marquess's tenants who lived in the area. His orders to the police were: ". . .do you advance and dislodge them - but do not fire unless you are fired upon."
This event, like many another, is full of hurt of all kinds, to life, health, property, feelings and political status. It is essential that we make every effort to get the facts straight and the commentary balanced. Otherwise we compound prejudice and justify hatreds. There was wrong on all sides. Roden and the Beers brothers were punished (and rightly) for the parts they played; the stipendary magistrates were censured for not preventing an armed march; others however, escaped the punishment they equally deserved. - Yours, etc.,
John Moulden, Apollo Walk, Portrush, Co Antrim.