HC Deb 15 July 1875 vol 225 cc1475-6
MR. O'CONNOR POWER

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If his attention has been called to the case of Patrick Walshe, who is imprisoned on a charge of having violated the condition of his pardon from the fulfilment of the sentence of fifteen years penal servitude, passed upon him at the Special Commission held in Limerick in 1867, for complicity in the Fenian insurrection, by having returned from America to this country in December last; and, if it is true that medical evidence has been given to the effect that Walshe's life would be endangered by residence in America or continued imprisonment; and, if so, whether the Executive has considered the advisability of ordering his release from custody?

SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH

In 1867 Patrick Walshe was sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude for treason-felony, having led an armed attack upon a police barrack. In 1871 he was pardoned on condition of remaining out of Ireland for the remainder of his sentence, which will expire in 1883. He recently returned to Ireland, in open violation of the condition of his pardon, and took up his residence near his old house. in the very part of the country where he had committed the offence for which he was sentenced to penal servi- tude. He was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced the other day at the Limerick Assizes. I have no official report of this last trial; but from a newspaper report it appears that medical evidence was then given that his health would be endangered if sent back to penal servitude or if he returned to America. I have received a telegram to-day to the effect that a memorial on his behalf has this morning reached Dublin Castle. It will, of course, be considered by the Executive, with every regard to the special circumstances of the alleged ill health; but I should say that the condition of his pardon was not that he should live in America, but that he should live out of Ireland, and if his health prevented him from continuing in America he might have changed his residence without returning to Ireland.