HC Deb 05 July 1872 vol 212 cc701-2
MR. WHITWORTH

asked Mr. Attorney General for Ireland, Whether the statement, as reported, that The Irish Executive, for the first time since Commissions have been issued, has omitted the name of the Mayor of Drogheda from the precept for holding the ensuing Assizes for that county town is true; and, if so, if he would state to the House what are the reasons why the chief magistrate of that ancient borough has been omitted from the precept?

COLONEL STUART KNOX

said, that on the same subject he wished to put a Question to his right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney General for Ireland—namely, Whether this Mayor was the same right worshipful Thomas Simcocks who, on the 14th of June last, issued a placard, on the requisition of James Matthews, J.P., Thomas M'Evoy, J.P., Patrict Ternan, J.P., Thomas Green, J.P., John Gradwell, J.P., John Chadwick, J.P., and other inhabitants of Drogheda, requesting him to call a meeting at The earliest convenience, for the purpose of expressing our disapprobation of the unwarrantable attack which Mr. Justice Keogh made on the Venerable Archbishop of Tuam, the Bishops, and clergy of Galway and its vicinity, when delivering his judgment on the recent Galway Election. Whether such meeting did take place on Sunday, the 23rd of June, and whether the right hon. Gentleman thought such a person fit to be associated with Her Majesty's Judges at the coming Assizes for the county of the town of Drogheda?

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. DOWSE)

said, he must defer the answer to the Question put by the hon. Member for Drogheda (Mr. Whitworth), for he had not the requisite information. If, however, the hon. Member would repeat his Question on Monday, he had no doubt he should be in a position to satisfy him on the subject. With respect to the Question of his hon. and gallant Friend (Colonel Stuart Knox), he did not know whether the Mayor referred to in the advertisement was the Mayor referred to in the Question, though, unless Drogheda had two Mayors at once, he probably was the same. As to whether he was a fit man to be associated with Her Majesty's Judges in the precept for holding the Assizes, he must decline to answer such a Question at five minutes' notice, and thought it would not be a proper Question to answer at any time.