Sir, - In the sub-editing of my piece on the theft from Dublin Castle in 1907 of regalia of the Order of St Patrick (An Irishman's Diary, December 27th), the loss of essential paragraphs distorted my defence of Sir Arthur Vicars.
The Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Aberdeen, was dismayed to read in a secret police report allegations of "scandalous conduct" impugning the moral character of Ulster King of Arms.
The following are the missing paragraphs:
Vicars was ably defended by his half-brother, Peirce Charles de Lacy O'Mahony, of Grangecon, Co Wicklow, relying on the evidence of Athelstane Wolseley, principal clerk in the Land Commission, and church warden of St Bartholomew's, Ballsbridge. As young men, Wolseley and Vicars had been paying guests of the scholarly Canon Richard Travers Smith at the Vicarage, Clyde Road.
"I cannot conceive anyone bringing such an accusation against your brother ... except for the purpose of blackmailing or from some malignant motive ... I know what a high opinion [Canon Smith] had of your brother."
It is instructive to compare the hounding of Vicars with the treatment of Roger Casement in 1916. "You could go nowhere in London at the time without hearing this scandal whispered," Mr George Bernard Shaw recalled in 1927.
On payment of the ransom for recovery of the regalia, the Grand Master's jewelled badge and star were probably restored by President W. T. Cosgrave to their rightful owners at the Office of Arms.
Having been instrumental in advancing the cause of peace and reconciliation after the Civil War, might the highly symbolic jewels be used to build a bridge in the Ireland of the Good Friday Agreement?
(The results of my research, The Dual Monarchy and the Regalia of the Order of St Patrick - Ransacking History, awaits publication.) - Yours, etc.,
Gregory Allen, Upper Kilmacud Road, Blackrock, Co Dublin.