Feiner). They sacked the premises and took prisoners the shopmen and two editors, Dickson and Mclntyre, who had taken refuge there. They flung live bombs into the house without warning and wounded one of the men. I have seen the house; it bears the marks of the bullets and bombs yet. As there was no resistance from the unhappy people, my husband was escorted back alive to the Barracks with the two other editors. Dickson was a cripple. He was the editor of "The Eye-Opener," Mclntyre, editor of "The Searchlight." By a strange irony both had been loyalist papers and Alderman James Kelly had helped to recruit for the army, but owing to the initial mistake, protests were useless. The soldiers confused "The Searchlight" with a paper called "The Spark" (a volunteer organ) and editors' lives were cheap during those days. Dead editors tell no tales—though sometimes their wives may. Again my husband was flung (according to some, still bound) into his cell. Whether he was further tortured that night I shall never know. Capt. Colthurst spent, according to himself, the rest of the night in prayer. At three o'clock he found a Bible text which seemed to him an inspiration—from St. Luke's—"Those who will not acknowledge Me, go ye forth and slay them." He interpreted Me to mean the British Empire, the message as a divine command.
The Murder
Shortly before ten o'clock the next morning (April 26th) Colthurst again demanded my husband from the guard, together with the two other editors. Lieuts. Toomey, Wilson and Dobbin were present in charge of the guard with 18 men. He stated that he was going to "shoot Skeffington and the others, that he thought 'it was the right thing to do.'" They were handed over accordingly, and the rest of the story we pieced together from the evidence of the other unhappy civilian prisoners who were in the guardroom and heard what was going on, for the military naturally do their best to prevent anything being known.
It seems, according to the account, that my husband was taken out from his locked cell by Colthurst. As he walked across the yard (the yard was only about 12 feet long by 6 feet wide) he was shot in the back without any warning whatever by the firing squad. While he lay, the two other editors were marched out also and murdered in cold blood without warning. The other prisoners listened eagerly the
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