RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE AND THE MOLLY MAGUIRES.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I see that Miss A. W. Richardson reopens this closed correspondence under a new name. In two columns of your paper she brings a string of charges against Irish Catholics generally, and brings them in such a form that it is impossible to examine the facts. Evidently some doubt of her methods touches her, for she asks the question : Why are not these cases of wrong fought in the courts P And she answers that there is no money to oppose the abounding resources of the Molly Maguires. I heard a distinguished Irish Congrega- tionalist minister say, on St. Patrick's Day at Liverpool, that if Irish Protestants believed their own statements, they were bound to contest such cases, and, he added, what we all know, that they have money and to spare. The Irish Quakers alone, for whom Miss Richardson speaks, dispose of much greater resources than any Nationalist organisation.
Miss Richardson does, however, make one verifiable asser- tion. " No Salvationist Army officer dare walk through the streets of Waterford in uniform. The first officer stationed there, not very long ago, was, soon after his arrival, knocked down while quietly walking in the public streets, and would have been killed but for the intervention of two sailors." She herself had always to be met by special police, and service could only be held under police protection. I telegraphed to the Rev. Wm. O'Donnell, P.P., Waterford. He writes :—
" The Salvation Army ladies are preaching in the most public and best part of the city almost daily, and no one takes the least notice of them. They go through the city at all times and they are never molested or noticed. I never heard of the murderous assault mentioned."
Here there is a definite and authoritative contradiction. Miss Richardson would need to make her charges precise or withdraw them.
As to the Ancient Order of Hibernians in this matter, if a branch exists in Waterford it is of very recent date. Long years ago, when the Salvation Army was new, I am told that some opposition was offered to it, as in many English towns. But the A.O.H. had no existence in the place at that time. There is not in all Miss Richardson's letter a single shred of evidence to connect the Order with any of the kidnappings, &c., which she alleges—if indeed they ever occurred.
Lastly, let me say this of the Order of which Mr. Devlin is
president. It is sectarian, but it is not in any real sense a
secret society. The membership is avowed and paraded. I do not know any place in Ireland where it flourishes in which outrages have occurred ; in the one or two disturbed districts it has no hold. Mr. O'Brien's denunciation of it should be read in the light of three facts. First, it was on Mr. O'Brien's own motion, when the United Irish League was being organised, that official recognition was given to the A.O.H. by entitling them to representation at Conventions. Secondly, that the Order has continuously and successfully opposed Mr. O'Brien since Mr. O'Brien ranged himself in opposition to the National Party. Thirdly, that when Mr. O'Brien ousted Mr. Abraham, a Protestant member of long standing, from his seat in County Cork, the A.O.H. was active in procuring Mr.
Abraham another seat in Dublin, to the exclusion of very strong Catholic rivals ; and that in the attack made upon Captain Donelan, another old and much-respected Protestant member (again by Mr. O'Brien in the interests of conciliation), the " Molly Maguires" rallied like one man for the Protes-
tant, and defeated Mr. O'Brien himself in East Cork by a tremendous majority. It was within a fortnight after the
infliction of this crushing defeat that Mr. O'Brien made his speech about the Order.—I am, Sir, &c.,
STEPHEN GWYNN.
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