The report issued by Cronin stated amongst other things—
“That the Trial Committee appointed at Chicago was unable to elicit all the facts connected with the charges placed before it, because of the refusal of several of the witnesses to answer many of the questions asked, and because of the inability of others to remember events and figures that might be supposed to be indelibly impressed on their memories. From the evidence presented, I am obliged to report—
“That the family of one who lost his life in the service of this order was scandalously and shamefully neglected, and continued to be neglected for two years after their destitute condition was known, and that Alexander Sullivan, Michael Boland, and D. C. Feeley are responsible and censurable for that neglect.
“That the defendants, Sullivan, Boland, and Feeley, issued a deceptive report to the Boston Convention, leading the order to believe that its affairs had been examined by independent committees, and that the order was $13,000 in debt; that, in fact, Alexander Sullivan and Michael Boland were on the Committee of Foreign Affairs, and the Treasurer states that there was a balance in the treasury, and not a debt.
“That, prior to the Boston Convention, one hundred and eleven thousand ($111,000) dollars was expended without any direct or indirect benefit to the order, and most of it in a manner that could not in any way have benefited the order, and that the same three defendants are censurable and responsible for this enormous and wasteful expenditure.
“That the $80,491 reported to the district Convention as having been spent in active work was not spent for any such work, no such work having been done or contemplated during the eleven months within which this large amount was drawn from the treasury. The active work done between the Boston and district Conventions was paid for out of the surplus held by the agent of the “Triangle” at the time of the Boston Convention, and not out of the $87,491 drawn from the treasury months after such active work had ceased.”
I give these extracts in order to show the reader how matters stood between Sullivan and Cronin on the eve of the latter’s murder. Into the details of the £20,000 transaction I need not enter, beyond stating the fact that banking officials were called to prove by their books that on May 15, 1882, Sullivan cashed, through Monroe and Co. of Paris, two cheques amounting to the sum I name. This, I may state, was about the date when Sullivan, in response to Mr. Parnell’s request, crossed to Paris in order to settle the difficulty with the Revolutionary body on the British side. As the following extracts will show, the matter had been one around which a great deal of controversy had raged for many years:—