HC Deb 12 March 1860 vol 157 cc338-9
MR. MAGUIRE

said, he rose, pursuant to notice, to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether it is true that a troop of the 15th Hussars have been sent to Castle-bar, County Mayo, for the purpose of aiding in the eviction of more than sixty tenants, representing 250 souls, from the property of Lord Plunket, Bishop of Tuam, at Partry, in that county; and whether it has come to his knowledge that the said evictions have been the result of the refusal of the tenants, who are exclusively Catholic, to permit their children to attend schools established by Lord Plunket, and which schools were publicly stated to be anti-Catholic in their teaching?

MR. CARDWELL

said, he was sorry to say, that from the excited state of Castle-bar and its neighbourhood it had been deemed necessary to send a small military force. That was the only portion of the question to which he was able to give an official answer. As to the motives inquired about as having induced a resort to the evictions he possessed no official information.