HC Deb 16 December 1847 vol 95 cc1233-4
SIR B. HALL

, in calling the attention of the House to the denunciations from the altar alleged to have taken place in Ireland, adverted to the letter of the Rev. Mr. M'Dermott, the parish priest of Strokestown, which contained the following passage:— I have now to assure the public, by the most solemn assertions a clergyman can utter, that the late Major Mahon was never denounced, nor even his name mentioned, from any chapel altar in Strokestown, or within twenty miles of Strokestown, in any direction, on any Sunday before his death. With respect to that passage in the letter, he (Sir B. Hall) could inform the House that he had received a letter on Wednesday from Dublin, in which it was stated to him that it was not on Sunday, but on Monday, that the late Major Mahon was denounced; and a letter appeared in the Times of that morning, signed "An Irish Peer," and which he believed was written by an Irish Peer, in which letter the following statement was contained:— The rev. priest is quite right as to the word 'Sunday;' the late Major Mahon was denounced from the altar on the 'Monday' previous to his assassination. That Monday was a saint's day, on which the Roman Catholic population attend mass as regularly as on the sabbath. This fact is well known in Dublin Castle. Major Mahon was, as he was informed, denounced on Monday, and murdered on Tuesday; and he would ask the Secretary for Ireland if he was aware that any information had been received with respect to this subject from Dublin Castle, as to whether Major Mahon had been denounced on Sunday or Monday; and if so, was it the intention of the Government to institute any proceedings against the rev. gentleman?

SIR W. SOMERVILLE

was not aware of what intelligence had been received by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; and not being in a position to answer the first question of the hon. Baronet, he was not, of course, prepared to answer the second.

MR. J. O'CONNELL

said, that as a portion of the letter of the Rev. Mr. M'Dermott had been read, it would have been but fair to have read the whole of the document, in which the rev. gentleman distinctly and clearly denied that any denunciation of Major Mahon had taken place in any chapel within twenty miles of Strokestown on any day whatsoever, for an attempt had been made to raise a quibble on the word "Sunday."