HC Deb 24 February 1882 vol 266 cc1534-5
MR. SEXTON

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he is aware, with regard to the case of Mr. Timothy Harrington, committed to Galway Gaol about nine months since, under the Lord Lieutenant's warrant, on a charge of "obstructing the due process of the Law," and who is still a prisoner there, that Mr. Harrington, before his arrest, had attended several sales of tenants' interest and stock for rent, and had successfully resisted and exposed illegal charge for auctioneers' fees which the sheriffs had been in the habit of exacting, and that Mr. Harrington had thereby incurred the hostility of influential persons connected with the administration of the Law; whether he will state upon which of the two speeches delivered by Mr. Harrington in Westmeath the charge of obstructing due process of Law in that county was founded, and whether he will quote the language which led to the issue of the warrant; and, whether it is necessary for the purpose of the Coercion Act that Mr. Harrington should be confined in a gaol so remote as that of Galway from his place of business at Tralee?

MR. W.E. FORSTER

, in reply, said, that on the 18th of August last he had answered a similar Question to the present one. He had replied that he could not give the evidence on which the arrest was made, and he could not offer any other answer. He had no doubt that Mr. Harrington had attended several sheriffs' sales; but he was not aware of his having successfully resisted and exposed an illegal charge for auctioneers' fees, and any such conduct on his part certainly did not enter into the considerations determining his arrest. As to the last part of the Question, he was not aware that Mr. Harrington had been removed to Limerick. He had, however, heard that, in consequence of a large number of prisoners in Galway Gaol awaiting their trials at the Assizes, there had been a question of removing some of the "suspects," and that Mr. Harrington was one of those who wished to be left at Galway, and his wish had been complied with.