HC Deb 19 May 1881 vol 261 cc807-8
MR. DALY

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is true that at Ballybunyon, in the county of Kerry, on the estate of Mr. Gunn Mahony, an absentee landlord, a man named Broder was with his large family evicted from his house, and, though apparently dying, was thrown upon the road without any shelter whatsoever; and, whether it is true that Broder had received the last sacraments of the Catholic Church administered only to dying persons?

MR. BRODRICK

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether, in the case referred to, the tenant was not still alive and well; and whether he was not at the time of the eviction three years in arrear of a rent fixed in 1862 by tire Court of Chancery, and not since raised; and whether it was not the fact that the state of his health was now such as to have permitted him on the 9th inst. to join a mob of about 1,000 persons in cutting turf on the property of his landlord in open defiance of the law?

MR. W. E. FORSTER ,

in reply, said, that he would give the House what information he could. The name of the evicted tenant was Brodrick, not Broder, as stated in the Question. He was tenant of an 80-acre farm, of which the rent was only £65. He had become a tenant of the farm under the Court of Chancery, at a rent of £75, in the year 1855. In 1862 the rent became £65. There had been a decree in June, 1880, for non-payment of rent, which was not executed until the time had almost expired; not, he believed, because the man was in a dying state, but because the landlord had been informed that the tenant was in a delicate state of health. The eviction took place on April 22. On the 9th instant, he was present as a spectator when a large crowd of persons assembled, but took no active part in the gathering.

MR. DALY

said, that he was not responsible for the error in the name, as he received his information in a telegram from the parish priest.