Boys and girls, once upon a time a gang of very bold men robbed a train at Sallins in Co Kildare. The king was very angry and sent his guards to catch the thieves.
They couldn’t find them and were afraid the king would be annoyed, so they picked up young lads they didn’t like and said, “Ye did it”. They bundled the lads into a dungeon where they kicked them and belted them and called them names and made them each write, in big letters, “I did it”, even though they didn’t.
The lads were brought before a judge. The king’s guards said, “They did it”. The judge wondered why the young lads looked roughed up. The guards said they had been fighting among themselves and that Osgur, who was only with the guards, beat himself up.
“All right so,” said the judge and sent the lads for trial. The judges there were shown how each of them had signed “I did it” in big letters. “All right so,” they said and put the young lads in jail, except Nicky. He went on the run. ‘I did not do it,’ he said.
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Soon Osgur and another lad, Brian, were let go, because no one believed they did it. So Nicky came home. He was put in jail, for years. “I am innocent too,” he said. “That’s not the point,” said the judges, “you went on the run.”
Nicky fasted for 38 days. He was soon very tired. The king was afraid he might die. He told him there was another way he might get his freedom. Nicky ended the fast and went to court again, as the king had told him to, but was blocked by the king’s men.
The people got mad and said they’d blow the king’s palace down if Nicky wasn’t let go. The king set him free but said, “Innocent or not is beside the point – he went on the run”.
Till this day no one knows how the king and his guards got away with doing what they did to these innocent young men, who weren’t even in Sallins on March 31st, 1976.
The IRA were. They said so. Twice.
A Sallins Inquiry Now benefit event takes place at Vicar Street, Dublin, on Sunday, March 29th, from 8pm. Tickets at Ticketmaster.
Sallins, meaning “the willows” (as Gaelige).
