1 31 PARLIAMENT STREET, DUBLIN, June 13th, 1916. SIR As solicitor for Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington - for whose husband's murder, on 26th April,
Captain Bowen Colthurst has been adjudged guilty - I have the honour to inquire when the
promised Public Inquiry will be held? My client is profoundly dissatisfied with the limited information afforded at the Court-
martial, when the insanity of the acused was suggested. While she abhors the idea that fresh blood should be spilt, my client is equally resolute
that the truth should be known, so that the people of the three Kingdoms may determine whether
the same measure of justice has been meted out to all parties affected by the rebellion. That there were circumstances giving rise to anxiety connected with the recent trial will
be evident from the following facts: - Lieutenant Wylie, K.C. who had prosecuted to conviction other men recently executed,
was released from this Courtmartial and an English Counsel, not fully acquainted with the facts
or imperfectly instructed, was appointed. Although no plea of inability to plead was entered
for the accused, the question of his sanity was raised from the outset. Yet the manner in which
he effected the arrest of the other murdered men (Messrs Dickson and McIntyre) was not proved,
nor the process by which he selected them for execution from amongst eight prisoners. Never
theless, it was within the knowledge of the Military Authorities that Messrs, Dickson and
McIntyre were taken into custody on the premises of Alderman James Kelly, ex-High Sheriff, by
the accused, under the idea that the shop belonged to Alderman Thomas Kelly, a person of
wholly different politics. They also knew that Colthurst threw a bomb into the premises and
subsequently 'planted' Mr. Dickson's trunk therein to give rise to the suspicion that Mr.
Dickson had been harboured by Alderman James Kelly who was also lodged in Portobello
Barracks. Nor was the Court informed that two sisters of Mrs. Skeffington, viz: Mrs Kettle
(wife of Lieutenant Kettle), and Mrs, Culhane (widow of a public official lately deceased) called
at Portobello Barracks on Friday, 28th April, after the murders, and, on inquiring for their
brother, Lieutenant Sheehy, were put under arrest and brought before Captain Colthurst, and
that he denied all knowledge of Mr. Skeffington and was perfectly calm and collected in his
demeanour and falsehoods. Similarly, the tribunal was not made aware that on the evening
after his examination of these ladies, Captain Colthurst ordered a search of Mrs.Skeffington's
house; that his soldiers first fired into her dwelling, and then, producing a key taken from the
body of the murdered man, opened his locked room and removed documents to try to furnish the
accused with ex post facto justification for his crime. The second raid on the widow's house by
Colthurst's orders on the following Monday, as well as the fact that one of the soldiers who took
part in it was the Sergeant left in charge of Dickson's trunk at Alderman James Kelly's, was
also left unmentioned. There was an equally significant silence as to the protests of the murder-
ed men on the morning of their execution, and as to the accused's refusal of spiritual solace to
them in their last moments.The Courtmartial were likewise unaware that Captain Colthurst
was allowed to remain at large by his superiors until the 6th May- nearly a fortnight after the
murders - while the non-production of Major Sir Francis Vane, his Senior Officer, disabled it
from learning that on the 1st may (a week after the murders) the accused was promoted to the
charge of the Defence of Portobello Barracks. His conduct on shooting the lad, Coade, on
Rathmines Road previous to the three murders, was not introduced, although Coade's father
immediately lodged information at the Barracks. None of the soldiers who formed the firing
party was called to speak as to the nature of the accused's commands and demeanour, or explain
how Mr. Skeffington came to be taken from a locked cell without authority. The added
tragedy which led to a second squad of soldiers being called out to fire at the prostrate body of
Mr. Skeffington would not have become known (although proved at the private preliminary
inquiry) but for the candour of the noble President of the tribunal, Lord Cheylesmore. As for
the attempt to fasten complicity with the rebellion on Mr. Skeffington by the production of a
document published previously by Alderman Thomas Kelly (which deceased, as a journalist,
kept in his house) - it stands in strange contrast with the silence preserved concerning the
innocence of the other slaughtered men and the Court was not even told who or what they were.
The admission of this document after Adjutant Morgan, who produced it, had sworn that it was
not found on Mr. Skeffington, may have been due to inadvertenance, but the cunning of the un-
truthful endorsement on it by the accused to the effect that it was found on the body, seemed
to call for observation on the issue of sanity, as corroboration of the fact that Captain Colthurst
from the date when he knew the murders were discovered, was engaged in the manufacture of
evidence to palliate his guilt. I therefore have to ask that in view of the promised Inquiry you will make arrangements
with the Military Authorities to have in attendance thereat, in addition to the witnesses called on
behalf of the prosecution at the late Courtmartial, the following persons: -
1. —The soldiers under command of Lieutenant Wilson when Mr. Skeffington was marched out
of his cell into the street to serve as a hostage.
2. —The soldiers who composed the first and second firing parties.
3. —Lieutenant Colonel McCammond who was in command of the Royal Irish Rifles.
4. — Major Sir Francis Vane, 2nd in Command.
5. —Lieutenant Tooley and Lieutenant Gibbon.
6. —The officers and soldiers who were sent after the murder to search Mrs. Skeffington's resi-
dence on two occasions - especially Sergeant Claxton. Of course, the names, regiment and regimental number of all the proposed witnesses
should be supplied to me some days before the Inquiry, unless the Government undertake to call
them for examination. I should also be furnished the Notes of the preliminary Inquiry which the Courtmartial
were supplied with. In addition I request that all documents, etc., taken from the person of
Mr. Skeffington, or seized at his residence, should be returned, and if this is refused that copies
should be supplied to me. I should likewise be afforded an opportunity of examining and taking copies of any reports
or entries dealing with the circumstances attending the arrest or execution of Mr. Skeffington,
or the searches at his residence. I shall feel obliged by an intimation of an early decision. I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient Servant HENRY LEMASS. To, THE RIGHT HON. H. H. ASQUITH, K.C., M.P., Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, London, S.W.