HC Deb 15 August 1881 vol 264 cc1908-10
MR. HEALY

asked the Secretary of State for War, If his attention has been called to the following paragraph from the "Limerick Reporter":— In this city on Saturday evening, July 30th, a quarrel arose between some soldiers, and one of them, Private Ratcliff, of the 9th Regiment, lost his cap. He said he should have a headdress, and rushing at Fathers Hammersley and O'Flaherty, of the Dominican Order, who were walking down Henry Street, he knocked the hat off the head of the latter clergyman and kicked it about; and, if he can state how the soldier has been dealt with?

MR. CHILDERS

Sir, in reply to the hon. Member I have to state that I have inquired into the facts of the case. It appears that two soldiers of the Norfolk Regiment were taking a third, who was not sober, to barracks. They took his cap and stick from him, on which he went up to two Roman Catholic priests who were passing and snatched Father O'Flaherty's hat off. On this he was set upon by some bystanders, and with difficulty rescued by the two priests. The commanding officer at once wrote to Father O'Flaherty expressing his regret, and that gentleman called the next day at the barracks and requested that the man might be let off, saying that he thought the man intended no insult to his sacred office, and that in a drunken freak he would have taken anybody's hat. The commanding officer very properly declined to let the man off, and punished him with fine and imprisonment.

MR. REDMOND

asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether his attention has been directed to a riot which occurred between the military and the people in New Ross, on the evening of Monday August 8th; whether he has inquired into the origin of the disturbance; whether it is true, as stated in the "Standard" of August 9th, that it arose in consequence of a number of soldiers publicly insulting the Pope in the streets of New Ross; and, what steps he has taken in the matter?

MR. CHILDERS

Sir, in reply to the hon. Member I have to state that I find that two men in a public-house in New Ross were, on the 8th instant, attacked by a mob of roughs, who stoned them through the windows and beat them with the publican's bottles. They were knocked down, badly kicked, and. with difficulty rescued. Several of the mob are about to be prosecuted, and I would, therefore, rather say no more on the subject at present, except that, according to the report of the command- ing officer, the men gave no provocation. Two other men on their way home to barracks were also set upon and beaten. With respect to the charge of publicly insulting the Pope, I can only say that when I read the hon. Member's Question, I directed special inquiries to be made, and that the commanding officer assures me that he can find no trace of the supposed occurrence, or even of such a charge having been made before the attack on the soldiers. If they were guilty of it they would have committed not only a military, but also an ecclesiastical offence, as they are all four Roman Catholics.