Six months before, they had lent their band instruments to the Thomas Emmet Club, an important association of Nationalists in the neighbouring village.
The Thomas Emmets, faced with a demand for the return of the instruments, confessed that they had lent them to the Martyred Archbishops’ branch of the Gaelic League. They, in turn, had lent them to the Manchester Martyrs’ Gaelic Football Association. These athletes would, no doubt, have returned the instruments honestly; but unfortunately their association had been suppressed by the Government six weeks earlier and had only just been re-formed as the Irish Ireland National Brotherhood.
In the process of dissolution and reincarnation the band instruments had disappeared. No one knew where they were. The only suggestion the footballers had to make was that the police had taken them when suppressing the Manchester Martyrs. This seemed probable, and the members of the Wolfe Tone Republican Club asked their president, Mr. Cornelius O’Farrelly, to call on Mr. Hinde and inquire into the matter.
Mr. Hinde was surprised, very agreeably surprised, at receiving a visit one evening from the president of the Republican Club. In Ireland, leading politicians, whatever school they belong to, are seldom on friendly terms with the police. He greeted O’Farrelly warmly.
“What I was wishing to speak to you about was this—” O’Farrelly began.
“Fill your pipe before you begin talking,” said Mr. Hinde. “Here’s some tobacco.” He offered his pouch as he spoke. “I wish I could offer you a drink; but there’s no whisky to be got nowadays.”
“I know that,” said O’Farrelly in a friendly tone, “and what’s more, I know you’d offer it to me if you had it.”
He filled his pipe and lit it. Then he began again: “What I was wishing to speak to you about is the band instruments.”
“If you want a subscription—” said Hinde.
“I do not want any subscription.”