§ MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHY (for Mr. SEXTON)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant for Ireland, Whether he has caused inquiry to be made respecting the conduct of the constable of Royal Irish Constabulary at Clonmany, county Donegal, in preventing by threats a tenant farmer named Doherty from allowing huts for the shelter of evicted tenants to be erected on his 700 farm; whether the tenants referred to were evicted at such a time that their periods of redemption had expired before the Arrears Act became Law; whether in consequence twenty-three families, numbering one hundred and eight souls, are huddled together in the village of Clonmany, as many as four families being crammed into one small house of three apartments, and fever having already broken out in one family, and threatening the rest of the population; whether materials for wooden huts to shelter them were supplied by public benevolence, and a tenant farmer named Doherty gave leave to have the huts erected on his holding, but the local constable, alleging instructions from his superiors, warned Doherty not to permit the erection of the huts, and told him that if they were erected a force of extra police would be quartered in the locality and Charged upon the people; whether, consequently, the families of the evicted tenants are left in a condition dangerous to life; and, whether the Executive will instruct the police to desist from preventing the provision of healthy shelter?
§ MR. TREVELYANI have made inquiry into this matter, and find that the hon. Member for Sligo has been greatly misinformed as to the facts. Six evicted tenants with their families, numbering in all 27 persons, are at present residing in Clonmany. In these cases proceedings were commenced as long ago as 1880, and the period of redemption expired in May of last year. One of these persons, a man named P. Tubbins, has, since his eviction, lived in a two-storied six-roomed house, his own property, and with him resides another of the evicted tenants, a relative of his own. For this man Tubbins it was proposed to erect a but, and materials for the purpose arrived at Clonmany in January last. The site selected was a piece of waste land overlooking several evicted farms. The constable in charge of the station feeling persuaded that, from the site chosen, intimidation was intended, warned the owner of the land, Doherty, that the probable result would be the erection of a police hut, which would involve a charge on the neighbourhood. Doherty then told the constable that he had not consented to the erection of the hut on his land. I am informed that it is not the case that four of the evicted families are huddled together in a three-roomed 701 house, or that there is any fever in Clonmany.