Sir, I would like to take issue with Vincent Browne's interview with Capt Kelly (The Irish Times April 14th).
I am one of Capt Kelly's four daughters and I think it is fair to say that in 1970, our world was turned upside down.
Vincent Browne claims that my father, James Kelly, is "obsessed" by the Arms Trial. If this is the case, it is a justifiable obsession. This is a man who had to endure the full force of the State against him. A man whose family was vilified as "closet provos". After the trial he had a wife and six young children to support and no means of doing it. He had nowhere to turn.
Were it not for his so-called obsession, Col Hefferon's original statement would probably never have seen the light of day and the truth would never out.
Over the years numerous attempts have been made to undermine my father's credibility. Vincent Browne perpetuates this by remarking "he has been regarded by most of the media as an obsessive crank". My father has always stood by what he knows to be right. If this is seen as "obsessive", so be it.
This is not the place to recite the litany of sleights and injustices my family has had to endure. Some of them are too personal to share. Over the years you become inured but you don't forget - we leave that to Mr O'Malley.
In his patronising interview Vincent Browne claims that Capt Kelly, "also made a bit of money out of `it' " - it being his central role in the arms crisis. For years my father has experienced inaccurate reporting about his role. No apologies were ever forthcoming. We have lost count of the number of times we have read of a "conspiracy to import arms" involving him. There was no conspiracy. My father found that the only way to get people to sit up and take notice was to sue. I wish he had started this process a long time ago in an attempt to nail the lie.
Incidentally, Mr Browne, in his list of Capt Kelly's written achievements, failed to mention his most recent book, The Thimbleriggers. This is my father's definitive account of events of the time.
Vincent Browne also describes him as "desperate to cling to his only claim to fame". All I can say is my definition of fame differs greatly to that of Vincent Browne's. Surely he means infamy rather than fame? Is it fame to have your integrity impugned, to have to retire from your long-term employment at the age of 40 and fight for a pension that is legitimately yours? If my father has any claim to fame it is the way he lives his life. He has always believed in honesty and integrity. To impugn this, is to do him a great disservice. - Yours etc.,
Sylvia Kelly Chesham, England.