MR. O'BRIENasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1418 Whether, and for what reason, the police have prevented Widow Driscoll, an evicted tenant, from taking possession of a wooden hut provided for the shelter of herself and her family at Keelkemane, near Skull; and, whether two of Widow Driscoll's grandchildren have died from exposure owing to the miserable condition of the hut in which they were obliged to take shelter after eviction?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, Mrs. Driscoll was evicted in April last, owing four years' rent, which it is believed she could have paid if she wished. It was proposed to erect a hut for her on a passage leading from the high road to the evicted house and farm. The object was believed to be intimidation, and informations were sworn to that effect. It was for this reason that the persons concerned were warned to desist. It is the case that two of Mrs. Driscoll's grandchildren died soon after the eviction. I am informed that the family are quite as well sheltered in the outhouse to which they removed after the eviction as they would have been in the wooden hut, and that the children had been dead more than a month before the erection of the latter was proposed.