§ SIR THOMAS BATESONsaid, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether the authorities at Dublin Castle are in possession of information to the effect that Mr. William O'Brien, who was murdered in a more than usually brutal manner in the county of Leitrim in the month of October last, was on the previous Sunday denounced from the altar by the Rev. Mr. Evers, the Roman Catholic priest of Mohill?
§ MR. CHICHESTER FORTESCUESir, I never heard, officially or otherwise, of the name of this Roman Catholic clergyman till I saw the Notice of the hon. Member on the Paper. Since then I have made inquiries from the police in the neighbourhood, and my information from them is that no occurrence which can be described in the terms of the question took place. There was nothing in the nature of a denunciation of Mr. O'Brien made by this Roman Catholic clergyman; but they say that on some Sunday previous to this lamentable event certain parties in the parish were mentioned by this clergyman in connection with the building of a school-house in the parish. He mentioned those who 1961 had assisted in building this school-house by giving the right to obtain stones on their land, and at the same time he said Mr. O'Brien refused to give him any stones from the land, and that, no doubt, was the foundation of the story referred to by the hon. Baronet.