§ MR. HEALYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is the fact that on the 22nd May, at the hour of six a.m. Chief Warder Sharpley, of Ennis Gaol, left that prison, taking with him the keys of a ward in which prisoners were, including some detained under the statute of Edward III.; and, whether, in consequence of the keys being taken outside the walls of the prison, the friends of one of the prisoners, Mr. Reedy, arrested under the Act of Edward III. were delayed half an hour in making their visit?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, I am informed that Chief Warder Sharpley was out of the prison on duty on the 22nd of May for half-an-hour between 10 and 19 10.30 A.M., and that the prisoner Reidy was visited during that time by two friends. The Chief Warder cannot remember whether he took the keys of the ward with him; but no complaint of any delay was made at the time.
§ MR. HEALYasked if it was the habit of the Governor of this gaol to use the chief and other warders for his own purposes, and if the business on which Sharpley was absent on the day in question related to the private affairs of the Governor himself?
§ MR. TREVELYANsaid, the actual words of the Report made to him were—"No complaint was made by either visitors or prisoner." The delay must have been very trivial.