Sir, - Sylvia Kelly is right to complain (April 18th), that in the introduction to my interview with her father, Capt Jim Kelly, last Saturday, I did not acknowledge his obsession with the injustice of what was done to him in the Arms Trial of 1970 was understandable.
I also failed to acknowledge the excellence of his dissection of the Arms Trial evidence in his book Orders for the Captain? and, particularly, in his most recent book The Thimbleriggers, which is now an invaluable background to the current controversy concerning the Arms Trial.
In my defence I offer only the following: since the mid-1070s, when I first began to investigate the 1970 Arms crisis, I have believed that a grave injustice was done to Capt Kelly and his family and to the other defendants and their families. I have also believed that very serious issues arise from the conduct of the trial. Perhaps in holding this opinion for so long, I was too quick to assume that it was widely shared.
In just one respect I take issue with Sylvia Kelly's letter. Capt Kelly has long been regarded by the mainstream media as an obsessive crank - my allusion to this was intended not as a slight to her father but a rebuke to the media.
I apologise for the hurt caused by my remarks to Capt Kelly and to his family and I hope this letter conveys my esteem for him, for what he has achieved, and for his family's support for him throughout the years. - Yours etc.,
Vincent Browne