Sir, - If Margaret Urwin (July 20th) consults the map which accompanies the Report of the Commission of Inquiry she will see clearly which is the "good straight road". Her quotation of Mr Reynolds has only the authority of his rhetoric. If she continues reading the report she will discover that the shot she insists came from the Orangemen was generally agreed to be a "squib," otherwise a blank, and that the Commissioner, who was in a better position to judge than either she or I, was unable to determine from which "side" it had come.
If she reads the alternative book of evidence prepared by the Newry Telegraph and the arguments of John Wilson Croker in the Critical Quarterly of early 1850, she will see that they were convinced that this first "shot" had been fired from the hill. Then, as now, people will believe what they want to believe. However, it is true, as I said, that the first two shots and the first volley to be directed at people came from the hill.
There are other points of issue in her letter. The effect of the Famine differed in various areas. Estyn Evans in Mourne Country argues that an area adjacent to the Dolly's Brae area suffered very little. Does Ms Urwin have evidence? There are clear reasons why no procession had passed Dolly's Brae in the previous 30 years. For much of that time the Orange Order had been suppressed by Act of Parliament and an Act restricting processions had lapsed only in 1845.
In 1848 the Orangemen had planned to march over the Brae but, as the Commission heard, were dissuaded in the interests of peace. They were accused of cowardice and songs were printed and sung. This provocation confirmed them in a resolve to march. Then as now, there were wrongs and rights on both sides.
I am accused of "choosing to ignore completely the brutal murders of Anne Traynor and Patrick King." Not at all - they were two of the four Catholics whose inquests I mentioned. Ms Urwin named Patrick King and Anne Traynor and said she was 85. The other two murders were of John Sweeney, the local idiot, and Hugh King; he was nine, shot in the stomach while running across a field. A magistrate nearby was powerless, save to cry "Shame". I know about these disgraces and did not ignore them, though I did not mention them specifically, as I did the death of Thomas Linten. The implication I strove to make then (as it is now) was that "two wrongs are not even the beginning".
I was, and am, striving for balance.
In researching this affray I have read every piece of primary evidence I can discover and hope that my analysis of it is honest. No wrongs are to be excused but no blame should be unfairly attached. An article in which I attempted this was printed in the Belfast Telegraph on July 12th. - Yours, etc., John Moulden,
Apollo Walk,
Portrush,
Co Antrim.