December 12 1924
Mr Justice [Richard] Feetham, Professor John MacNeill, and Mr JR Fisher, BL, are busy men these days. Their thoughts are private; not possessing the secret of the process which gave the Invisible Man of Mr HG Wells’ gruesome romance a few advantages and many disadvantages as compared with humanity at large, the Commissioners cannot hide their forms from the public gaze; as one motor-car is as good as another, if not better, the eminent visitors are unable to fly beyond the vision of vigilant journalists: but they can keep their tongues quiet, and they are authorised to “exclude the Press” from their conversations with the natives of the “Border”: therefore one corner at least of the veil of mystery has not been lifted. People know what the Commissioners do; it is impossible to tell what they think: they have very little, or nothing to say; and while they are conscientiously discharging their duty on the lines selected by themselves, no mere critic should denounce or praise them. Mr Justice Feetham and his colleagues are talking to the people most immediately concerned – for the moment. Despite the defection of Mr [William Thomas] Miller MP (Tyrone County Councillor), we can rest assured that the Commissioners will not suffer from the silence of the inhabitants as they move around the pernickety Border.
Like Moses on Mount Nebo looking down on the Promised Land he was doomed not to tread, the three Commissioners are climbing to one hill-top after another and making visual surveys of “scenes as fair as ever man’s eyes did see”. They are moving in a district richer than most Irish areas in proud historic memories and ancient legendary lore. Armagh, with all the centuries that have passed since the days of St Patrick on its brow; Newry, “the Frontier Town” where Bagnal had his camp before Beal-an-atha-buidhe, and into whose streets Phelim O’Neill led the soldiers of the resurgent old race nearly 50 years after; Dundalk, with a story winding back into the impenetrable mists of time; Sliabh Gullion, up which they trod to its charmed summit in the footsteps of Finn, the son of Cumhail: the names these places are indelibly written in our country’s annals, and people who lived in them helped materially to shape the thought of the world and the destinies of Europe.
For much of December 1924, the Boundary Commissioners toured border areas. While they were very visible, they were very quiet, not giving much indication on their thoughts about the border.
