HC Deb 28 April 1868 vol 191 cc1454-5
MR. MONSELL

said, he would ask permission of the House to allow him to speak for a few moments on a matter personal to himself. He found that Dr. Magee, the Protestant Dean of Cork, had complained of a statement attributed to him (Mr. Monsell) with regard to the burial-ground of Enniskillen. He begged to state that he made no statement with regard to the Enniskillen burial-ground, but to a place called Pubble. The facts were—that the graveyard of Pubble was about a mile from the Protestant Church; that for the last twenty-six years the burial service of the Established Church had not been celebrated therein more than five times; that Roman Catholics had no other available burying-place than that of Pubble within a circuit of not less than ten miles; that, notwithstanding, the Rev. T. C. Maude, rector of the parish in 1848, prohibited the Roman Catholic priests from officiating at Pubble graveyard; that the Rev. Dr. Magee, who succeeded Mr. Maude as rector, was requested by a lay Roman Catholic parishioner to remove the veto of his predecessor, and permit the Roman Catholic parishioners to have the privilege of Christian interment. This request Dr. Magee held under consideration for some time, but ultimately refused to communicate further on the subject with the applicant. Dr. Magee had also impugned the statement which he had made in a recent debate on the Irish Burials Bill, to the effect that the very rev. gentleman had declined to allow Roman Catholics to be buried in a graveyard at Enniskillen according to the rites of their religion. He begged to say that he had made the statement on the authority of a petition, to which he called the attention of the hon. and learned Member for Mallow (Mr. Sullivan), in order that, if there was anything erroneous in it, he might contradict it.