But I am
anticipating the findings of the Commission, and perhaps, after all, the
peculiar Terms of the Reference largely dictated the course of procedure
which the Commission adopted.
The first public sitting was held in Dublin on the 12th of October, 1906,
and the last in the same city on the 29th of January, 1909. There were
95 public sittings in all; and 293 witnesses were examined, 29 of whom
appeared on behalf of the Railway Companies. The Reports of the
Commissioners (for there were two--a Majority and a Minority Report) did
not appear till the 4th of July, 1910, so from the time of its
appointment until the conclusion of its work the Commission covered a
period of four years, all but fourteen days.
During the course of this Inquiry I passed through a crisis in my life.
From more than a year before the Commission was appointed I had been in
most indifferent health, the cause of which doctors both in Dublin and in
London were unable to discover. As time went on I became worse.
Recurring attacks of intense internal pain and constant loss of sleep
worked havoc with my strength; but I held on grimly to my work, and few
there were who knew how I suffered.
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