HL Deb 07 June 1886 vol 306 cc1115-7
THE EARL OF LIMERICK

asked the Lord President of the Council, Whether he could give the House any information as to the recent murder of Patrick Tangney near Killarney, and whether the Government considered that they had sufficient powers to protect life and property and to bring to justice the instigators and perpetrators of this and similar crimes in Ireland?

THE LORD PRESIDENT (Earl SPENCER)

, in reply, said, he was afraid that the general purport of the noble Lord's Question was true. From the report he had received he found that the house of Patrick Tangney, about five miles from Killarney, was entered by armed and disguised men about 12 o'clock on the night of June 3. Tangney was shot in the leg, from the effects of which he had since died. The motive of the outrage was supposed to be owing to the fact that the man was connected with the estate of Mr. Going, and that he was supposed to have taken some steps to allow men outside the estate to get bog. This was supposed to be the motive of the outrage, but of course it was impossible to be certain in regard to it. Her Majesty's Government regretted to say that the state of Kerry in certain parts was not at all satisfactory. Ever since last August the condition of that county had been much in the same condition as it was now, and there had indeed been little or no change since June or July of last year. A large number of additional police had been drafted into the county in order to cope with this particular method of outrage, which was "moonlighting." The only mode in which the Irish Government could deal with disturbance of this kind was to increase the strength of the patrol. Last year the Inspector General of Con- stabulary visited the district to consult with the Local Authorities, and a considerable number of police were sent. He visited the county again in. February, and in certain parts of the county there was then a distinct improvement. A number of extra police were in the county now, and the Government were doing their utmost to keep down these outrages by increasing the patrols. The Inspector General had again been ordered to the county and left for the district last night in order to hold another consultation with the Authorities with the object of putting down these outrages. With regard to some of these outrages there was reason to believe that they had been got up for the purpose of showing that the tenants were under intimidation, and in one case there was reason to believe that the sons of the farmer whose house was attacked took part in the outrage for the purpose of using it as a pretext for not paying his rent to his landlord.

LORD ASHBOURNE

asked if the noble Earl had any reason to doubt the information which the Government received that this was an agrarian murder, and that the sole offence was an honest attempt on the part of the deceased to perform his ordinary civil duties?

THE EARL OF MILLTOWN

asked whether, considering the present state of the County Kerry, the Law Officers of the Crown considered, in the very unlikely event of the capture of these murderers, there was any reasonable hope of their being prosecuted and convicted before a common jury? The statement that some of these outrages were prearranged was uncalled for and monstrous, and it was a strange assertion for a responsible Minister of the Crown to make. It was also a strange statement for the noble Earl to say that the condition of Kerry had been unsatisfactory since he left Office last year.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (The Earl of KIMBERLEY)

said, he did not understand his noble Friend (the Lord President of the Council) to say anything so absurd as that this murder had been pre-arranged. What his noble Friend said was that there was reason to believe that some of these moonlight outrages had been pre-arranged.

LORD FITZGERALD

said, that, in all probability, the Judge before whom the murderers would be taken—if any of them were apprehended—would change the venue from Kerry to Cork, in which county, in such a case as this, there would be no fear of a miscarriage of justice.