Sir, – A form of decimation was last used in Ireland in 1798, after the battle of Ballinamuck, Co Longford.
Approximately 500 Irish rebels were killed in combat, and many Irish rebel prisoners were hanged afterwards.
Some prisoners were executed in a particularly macabre fashion.
According to an account written after the event by an unidentified field officer, Irish prisoners were subjected to a form of decimation: "An order arrived from Lord Cornwallis directing a certain number of them to be hanged without further ceremony, and a number of bits of paper were rolled up, the word 'death' being written on the number orders; and with these in his hat the adjutant, Captain Ray – on whom devolved the management of this wretched lottery – entered the courthouse and the drawing began. As fast as a wretch drew the ticket, he was handed out and hanged at the door." (Litton Falkiner, Studies in Irish History, 1902).
Among those hanged was Richard Blake, one of the leading Irish rebel officers, and incidentally, great-uncle to Bram Stoker.
Stoker later wrote that his primary influence as a writer were the stories told him by his mother about her own family, Irish history and legend. It’s easy to see how such a story might have impacted on the imagination of a “thoughtful” child, as later Stoker described himself. – Yours, etc,
FIONA FITZSIMONS,
Dublin 2.