§ MR. MAGUIREsaid, he rose to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, if he has been informed that the Stained Glass Window of the Roman Catholic Church of Cookstown, county Tyrone, was maliciously broken on the morning of Sunday, the 1st day of July, and what practical steps have been taken by the Irish Government to maintain the peace and preserve the persons and property of Catholics from outrage in that and other Counties in Ulster? He had stated on a former occasion that on the 15th of June a procession of 1,500 Orangemen marched into Cookstown, accompanied by a band of music, which played party and insulting tunes before the doors of the Roman Catholic inhabitants; that the leaders of the procession threatened that they would return to Cookstown; and that if they did so the Catholics, as a matter of course, would resist them, and the consequence would be bloodshed. The reply of the Chief Secretary was, that he had received no report, but afterwards the right hon. Gentleman showed him an official document, in which the affair was lightly treated. Since then, however, he had been informed that it was a formidable demonstration, and had excited bad feeling and apprehension in the minds of the Catholics of Cookstown. Moreover, some time in the night, between the 30th of June and the 1st of July, a splendid glass window in the new Roman Catholic Chapel in Cookstown, to which Protestants and 1863 Presbyterians had liberally subscribed, and which was erected in memory of a Roman Catholic clergyman, respected and honoured by all classes in the town, was smashed to pieces, and it was well known that the dastardly outrage was perpetrated either by those who shared in the demonstration of the 15th of June, or by persons who sympathized with them. He had received a letter from a Roman Catholic clergyman, in which it was stated that, so far from peace being restored in Cookstown, the whole country was in a terrible state of excitement and alarm; that 1,500 Orangemen marched into Stewartstown on the 2nd of July, and threatened destruction to the churches and chapels of the Catholics; that in a neighbouring town a band of Orangemen broke into a Catholic chapel, and smashed the tabernacle and a statue of the blessed Virgin; that Armagh was almost in a state of siege; and that if the Government did not act vigorously before the 12th, there would certainly be bloodshed on a large scale. The parish priest of Cookstown had clearly shown in a letter published in the Irish papers that the Catholics had given no provocation whatever, and the writer concluded by stating that his only hope was in public opinion compelling the Legislature to place Orangeism and Ribbonism on the same footing. A public meeting of the Catholic inhabitants of Cookstown had been held, and had passed resolutions to the effect that they believed it to be the plain duty of every Catholic to cultivate peaceable relations with all men, no matter what religion they might profess or what political views they might adopt; that the outrageous display of the Orangemen had excited the utmost indignation and alarm; and that it behoved the Government immediately to take steps to protect their persons, property, and churches. These outrages were not the consequence of the recurrence of any of those festivals which excited bad feelings in Ireland, but the persons who led the procession in Cookstown declared that there would be bloodshed by the 12th of July in that place. Were, then, confederacies like these to be tolerated in a civilized country? He was as strongly against Ribbonism as any man could be, but Ribbonism sprang from a spirit of antagonism, and the gauntlet was thrown down by Orangeism. He had been in the north of Ireland, and witnessed the deadly animosity which raged between the different religions, and he believed that if Oraugeism and Ribbonism were utterly 1864 extirpated, Ireland would not only be the most pacific, but the most prosperous portion of the United Kingdom. His object in asking this question was peace, not hostility, and he therefore begged the earnest attention of Government to the matter.
MR. CORRYsaid, that no one could deplore more than himself that such an outrage as that referred to should have taken place in a part of the country which he represented, but he must protest against the right of the hon. Member (Mr. Maguire) to argue from the fact that a single outrage had been committed (but which was more probably a disturbance originated by some drunken persons) that the lives and safety of all the Roman Catholics in that part of Ireland had been or were now endangered. But for the purpose of showing the House what the nature of the alleged outrage was he would read a letter he had received from Mr. Lindsay, the Chairman of the Petty Sessions, before whom the case itself was tried. That letter was in the following terms:—
My attention has been drawn to a Report which has been going the rounds of the public papers relative to a statement attributed to Mr. Maguire, M.P. for Dungarvan, in which he is reported to have stated in his place in the House of Commons.[Cries of "Order."] Well, he would say, a statement was made,—That a large number of persons stating themselves, and known as Orangemen, and amounting to at least 1,000 in number, marched in procession into the town of Cookstown, county of Tyrone, on the evening of the 15th instant, accompanied by drums and fifes, and playing party tunes, and that they continued for a period of three hours, from eight until eleven o'clock, parading the streets of the town, playing such party tunes, and frequently stopping before the houses of the Roman Catholic inhabitants to beat their drums, and indulge in various insulting manifestations, calculated to lead to a breach of the peace.Now, his correspondent observed,—As Chairman of the Cookstown Petty Sessions, held on the following Friday, the 19th instant, when seventeen of the persons alluded to appeared on summons before the Court for having beaten drums and played on fifes in Cookstown on the evening in question, I beg leave to state that the information which Mr. Maguire has received touching this matter is altogether incorrect. It appeared in evidence that there was no marching in procession, no party tunes were played, no insulting manifestations exhibited before the houses of the Roman Catholic inhabitants, nor any abusive or provoking language made use of towards anyone, and I need therefore scarcely add, that there was no breach of the peace whatever. Had there been such a procession and display as Mr. Maguire is reported to 1865 have stated in the House of Commons, I should have felt it my duty to have directed informations to have been taken and returned to the ensuing assizes; but it was not even attempted to be proved that there was anything political in the assembly, or of what party they consisted, nor was the word 'Orange,' or 'Orangemen' ever made use of by any one of the witnesses during the trial. I am since informed that there were a number of women and children, as well as men in the crowd, many of whom were persons returning from a spinning manufactory in the neighbourhood of Cooks-town. As I am not, and never was, an Orangeman, I cannot justly be accused of partiality in this statement, which I feel it my duty (as Chairman of these Petty Sessions, as well as in compliance with the wishes of other magistrates) to make to you, as one of our representatives of this county of Tyrone, that you may be fully aware of the facts which Mr. Maguire seems to have been totally ignorant of.It appeared, then, from that communication, that the procession was a noisy collection of men and women and children, but no breach of the peace had been committed; it was not even shown that it was formed of any particular class of religionists, or that that was at all any prominent feature in the affair. Even the classic atmosphere of Rome had not been sufficient to restrain the ebullitions of lively feeling natural to Irishmen, as his Holiness the Pope had no doubt by this time discovered, with respect to the force that had tendered their services to him. Why, then, should it be expected that Cookstown was to be more free from a similar exhibition?