Description

Letter from Cahir Healy, 44 Belmore Street, Enniskillen, to Éamon Donnelly, referring to tensions with the Orangemen and 'B Specials'. Dated 17 November 1938. Healy writes: "The issue of a counter poster for an Orange meeting at Newtownbutler is reg[a]rded as the work of a small extremists group in South Fermanagh. They have gone around pulling down our posters and putting up their own in the night in a car. They are the "B" men. Father Maguire was asked to cancel his meeting by the police, or it was strongly suggested to him there might be trouble with the "B" men if he persisted. The main idea, I think, is not to hold a counter meeting but to intimidate people from coming to our meeting by spreading the idea that there may be a conflict. The "Fermanagh Times" has cultivated that idea for two weeks. Fermanagh folks are not notable for wanting to be in any trouble. They are shy folks. […] I don't anticipate anything more than that Newtown will be filled with police on Sunday and all the roads leading to it […]."