Sir, - James P. Brennan's understanding (February 1st) of the massacre at Scullabogue during the 1798 rising is not quite in line with the known facts. He says that "up to 200 mainly Protestant civilians, including women and children, were massacred" there.
None of, the loyalist historians of the period can come up with any more than 95 victims of the tragedy - Musgrave says 84; Taylor 95 (74 in the barn, 21 outside). Dr Charles Dickson, the respected author of The WexfordRising in 1798, says that "the balance of evidence and probability would indicate that about 100 persons were murdered altogether".
Not all the victims were Protestant - at least eight women were Catholics (according to Taylor). It is now generally accepted that the Scullabogue victims were not killed because they were Protestants, but rather because they were "loyalists" and opposed the aims and objects of the United Irishmen. The women and children who died were, of course, innocent victims - they were there because they had been permitted to accompany their menfolk to this prison.
All the deaths are deeply regretted by those who are planning to erect a memorial at the site next year, a ceremony in, which (in true United Irish fashion) Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter will be involved. - Yours, etc.,
Kincora Avenue,
Dublin 3.