THIRD READING. (Hansard, 2 September 1880)

THE O'GORMAN MAHON,

in moving that the Bill be now read the third time, said, he desired to make one or two observations. What he wished to say was simply this—that after having lost considerable time in endeavouring to bring on this measure, the promoters had at last succeeded in bringing it to its present stage, and that was principally due to the energy and activity of an hon. and gallant Friend who was at that moment accidentally absent. He wished to impress upon hon. and right hon. Gentlemen on the opposite side of the House that when they heard Irishmen complain of difficulties and wrongs and oppression which they did not seem to comprehend, and which they did not seem even to desire that others should comprehend, he wished them to be able to regard the present instance as an exemplification of these difficulties and wrongs. What were the circumstances of the present Bill? They were simply these. The County of Clare was surrounded on three sides with water, and was connected with the rest of Ireland by a short line running between Loughderg and the Atlantic; the county, consequently, formed a peninsula, and upon that peninsula was an immense extent of district which had been hitherto 1042 totally devoid of anything in the shape of railway accommodation. All of the efforts of the people of the locality had been exhausted in promoting short tramway or railway lines so as to bring the different districts into communication with each other. But they had been unable to provide the means; and, therefore, their efforts had been useless. This year they had been able to come to the House of Commons at enormous expense. Instead of being able to complete an inquiry on the spot, as they ought to have been, they had been compelled to waste the capital which would otherwise have gone in the construction of the works in promoting a measure in the Imperial Parliament which was closely, entirely, and exclusively connected with one county in Ireland. They had been obliged to come over here to London at enormous expense. Thousands and thousands of pounds had been expended in order to meet the preposterous demands of a set of English gentlemen who had probably never before heard of the locality; or, if they had heard of it, had only heard of it for the purpose of saying—"It is only an Irish affair, and one that is not worthy of our consideration." He wished hon. Members, before they separated, to understand that this was one of the grievances the Irish people complained of—namely, that they were obliged to spend thousands of pounds unnecessarily upon a matter which, if conducted in Ireland, would cost only a few pounds.