COUNTY LOUTH VOLUNTEER DEFENCE CORPS.
(TO TEE EDITOR OF THE ' SPECTATOR'.)
notice your well-deserved tribute to the Dublin( ompanies of the V.T.C. for their services during the recent rising, and your sympathy with them, which every one shares, for their losses—losses inflicted by the rebels on unarmed men, or rather on men with rifles but no ammunition. It may interest you to know that the County Louth Volunteer Defence Corps (" G.R.'s ") were also on duty from the Monday evening till the Saturday morning next. They were called up to assist the military and police in protecting the town of Dundalk, the village of Castlebellingham, and the railway line running through their district from Belfast to Dublin. They turned out with any arms they had, or could get, from shot-guns and Miniature rifles to two or three service-bore weapons. Among other duties, they guarded bridges, patrolled the railway lino, guarded railway stations, the police barracks, and acted as town patrols at night. They received eight general emergency calls-out during the five days—at all hours of the day and night—and many of the members of the corps did not get more than twelve hours' sleep during the whole period, while at times the tension was very great. Many of the members had to carry on their day's work when off duty. Some of the members owning motor-cars and cycles were extremely useful to the military in despatch-carrying and scouting. When the surrender took place in Dublin the corps were taken off duty In a paper which has always taken a paternal interest in the V T.C. it may not be out of place to record, thus briefly, the work of a small company hardly more than six
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