HC Deb 14 July 1884 vol 290 cc925-6
VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH (for Lord ARTHUR HILL)

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether Mr. John Stack, T.C. Listowel (county Kerry), who has been recently appointed to the Commission of the Peace for that town, is the same person who, in the month of November last, not only attended, but presided over a public meeting held in a graveyard near Listowel, for the purpose of commemorating the anniversary of the execution of the Fenians, Allen, Larken, and O'Brien; and, whether that meeting had been proclaimed by his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant; and, if this new magistrate, in his capacity as chairman, on the said occasion unveiled a stone cross to the memory of those "Manchester martyrs?"

MR. SEXTON

Before the Question is answered, I should like to ask is it not the fact that the noble Lord in whose name the Question stands (Lord Arthur Hill), and a number of his friends who hold the Commission of the Peace, lately waited on the Lord Lieutenant and told him to his teeth that they refused to comply with his suggestion with regard to counter Orange demonstrations, and that they would stand upon their right to hold these meetings at the same time and place as the Nationalists?

MR. T. P. O'CONNOR

I should also like to ask the Chief Secretary, whether the noble Lord is not the same noble Lord who went to shopkeepers in Belfast, previous to the recent visit of the Lord Lieutenant, and requested them to take down the flags which they had put up to welcome His Excellency?

MR. TREVELYAN

, in reply, said, he must take these Questions separately, and with Notice. Mr. John Stack, the Chairman of the Town Commissioners of Listowel, was, on their application, selected as Town Justice under the Towns Improvement Act on the 7th of June. The Lord Chancellor was entirely unaware of any of the allegations contained in the Question. It was right to say, in relation to those allegations, that on reference to the Constabulary Reports made to the Government at the time, it would appear that no meeting was held in violation of the Lord Lieutenant's Proclamation, and that no speeches were delivered. A few persons, about a dozen in number, did, on the morning of the 25th of November last, quietly unveil the cross. But as to this and every other matter connected therewith, the Lord Chancellor would make inquiry.