§ MR. LEA (Londonderry, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether complaints had reached him that it is the custom of a crowd of Nationalists to assemble at the end of the Bann Bridge, Portglenone, every evening, to the annoyance of persons crossing the bridge, and that on July 31, a man named Gerald Orr Finlay was violently attacked and beaten by them without the slightest provocation; and if the attention of the police will be called to this state of things, for the protection of the quiet and peaceable inhabitants of the district?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. MADDEN)) Dublin University(who replied) said: The Constabulary authorities report that it is customary for a crowd of persons to frequent the neighbourhood of the bridge referred to during the summer to watch the fishing; but no complaints of annoyance to persons crossing the bridge have been received by them. The man named did report at the police barracks that he had been assaulted some 50 yards from the bridge by one of two men, neither of whom he knew. He had a 388 wound on his head; but it was not dangerous. The police are still making inquiries, with a view to discover his assailant.