§ MR. P. O'BRIEN (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he can explain the grounds which induced the Prisons Board neither to dismiss nor to censure the very Rev. Dr. M'Alroy, P.P., chaplain of Tullamore Goal, who, when summoned to give evidence relative to the conveyance of a suit of clothes to the hon. Member for North East Cork, Mr. William O'Brien, while a prisoner in Tullamore Gaol in 1887, first before Mr. Joyce, who conducted an inquiry on oath on behalf of the Prisons Board, and subsequently before Mr. Burke, Chairman of the Prisons Board, refused absolutely to appear before either gentleman or give any evidence, sworn or otherwise, in relation to the inquiry, whereas the Rev. Father O'Dougherty, late chaplain of Derry Gaol, was dismissed by the Prisons Board for refusing to answer certain questions which he considered ought not to have been put to a minister of religion, when giving evidence in an inquiry conducted by Mr. Joyce, on behalf of the Prisons Board, relative to the conveyance of letters out of the prison, with which it was not proved Father O'Dougherty had anything to do?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe General Prisons Board report that it appears, from the Minutes of Evidence in the Office, that the Rev. Dr. McAlroy not only did not refuse to give evidence before Mr. Bourke, Chairman of the Prisons Board, but was examined upon oath by him with regard to the conveyance of a suit of clothes to Mr. O'Brien, M.P. From the Report received from Mr. Inspector Joyce on the same subject, it does not 1356 appear that the Rev. Dr. McAlroy was called upon by him to give evidence upon the subject, but an inquiry has been to-day addressed to Mr. Joyce on the matter.