§ MR. REDMONDasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is a fact that a serious outrage, said to have been committed upon some of the servants at Government House, Derry, during the visit of the Irish Society to Derry in August 1880, was reported to the Constabulary; whether said outrage was ascribed as a party one to the Roman Catholics of the neighbourhood; whether, during subsequent inquiries by a detective into an alleged larceny of spirits and wine, the property of the said Society, it transpired that no such outrage had been perpetrated; whether the supposed outrage was not an act done by the servants themselves; and whether this is the first occasion that strong suspicion has attached to some of the employées of the Society in connection with serious party outrages in Derry not long since; and, whether, in view of the stigma placed upon the Catholics of Derry, he will order an independent investigation into the circumstances?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTER, in reply, said, the occurrence referred to in the Question took place in August, 1879, and was believed at the time to have been a party outrage. A magisterial investigation, however, failed to elicit any evidence implicating any parties. He believed some wine, the property of the Irish Society, was alleged to have disappeared at the railway station at Londonderry; but it subsequently transpired that it had been correctly delivered. He saw no necessity at present of ordering an investigation.