HC Deb 18 February 1881 vol 258 cc1228-9
MR. REDMOND

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in reference to the detention by the Police without warrant of Margaret and Mary Cushin, Whether those girls were taken into custody before it was known what evidence they could give, and detained after it was ascertained that they could give no evidence materially affecting any individual, and only released on service of a conditional order for a writ of Habeas Corpus upon the constable having charge of them; and, whether he is aware that they have stated their readiness to prove by affidavits that they were kept in detention against their will and in spite of repeated demands for their release?

MR. W. E. FORSTER,

in reply, said, this was the subject of an answer to another Question from the same hon. Gentleman on the previous day. It was not correct to say that the girls in question had been taken into custody. They gave their evidence voluntarily, and were examined by the Crown Solicitor, who considered it important. As he had previously stated, they remained in Dublin under the care of a married constable's wife, until the 13th September, when their father asked that they should be allowed to go homo. The sub-inspector of the district, the following day, made an order to allow them to return, and he stated in that order—"It is to be clearly understood that these girls are not to be detained against their will." The girls, on being questioned, desired to go home, and it was arranged that their father should call for them the next morning. He, however, did not come, and they consequently remained until they voluntarily went home. On the 15th September, a solicitor made an application in the Court of Queen's Bench for a conditional order for a writ of Habeas Corpus to have the girls given up, and the application was granted; but as they were sent home on the 17th instant, the conditional order was discharged. As to the last part of the Question, he could not say whether these girls had or had not stated that they were prepared to swear an affidavit that they were detained against their will.