HC Deb 28 June 1881 vol 262 cc1481-2
MR. HEALY

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If he could state to the House on what authority he informed the House on the 17th instant that Mr. Hodnett, one of the gentlemen confined in Limerick Gaol, sent for the Governor, admitted he had done wrong, and promised not to offend again; whether he is aware that Mr. Hodnett denies the whole story as told to the House; whether it is true that Mr. Hodnett's demand for a sworn information into the subject of his complaints has been refused by the Prisons Board; and, whether he will direct that no further Coercion suspects be sent to Limerick Gaol?

MR. W. E. FORSTER

said, that his authority for the statement made by him in the House on the 17th instant was the report of the Governor of the Prison which was transmitted to him by the Prisons Board. Since then he had been informed that Mr. Hodnett denied the accuracy of the statement. It was true that Mr. Hodnett's demand for a sworn inquiry into the subject of his complaints had been refused by the Prisons Board, who did not consider such was called for, as the entire subject had been already inquired into by the Board's Inspectors. As to the request the hon. Member made at the end of his Question, he (Mr. W. E. Forster) could give no such undertaking.

MR. HEALY

asked, was it true that Mr. Hodnett had been transferred from Limerick to Dundalk Gaol, which prison was the farthest in Ireland from the family of Mr. Hodnett; and whether Mr. Hodnett's son was not imprisoned at Limerick as a suspect?

MR. W. E. FORSTER

said, it was a fact that Mr. Hodnett was transferred to Dundalk, and he had heard that Mr. Hodnett was glad of the change.

MR. HEALY

asked, would the Government, for the sake of mitigating to Mr. Hodnett the horrors of prison life, allow that gentleman's son, who was a prisoner, to be in the same gaol with his father?

MR. W. E. FORSTER

said, he must leave that to the discretion of the authorities immediately concerned. He could not undertake to say to what prison a particular prisoner should be sent.