Deposition of Henry Phair, March 1880

HENRY PHAIR. — I am a County Constable and City Detective: I have been engaged up in the Township of Biddulph in connection with this matter; I know Patrick Ryder, Jr.: I recollect the day the he was arrested: I brought him from Lucan in company with the Chief; we were talking about the murder and one thing and another; we were talking about the church; we were talking about people in Ireland; he told me that the priest had cursed the Donnellys in the Biddulph church; […] I was asking him how the society was formed; he said that the people went into church and there was a book for them to sign, and that the depredations that had been committed; the Donnelly’s were such bad people that they had been cursed from the altar; […] that was after he told me about the forming of the vigilance committee; he said the priest had formed the society […]