HC Deb 23 June 1884 vol 289 cc1095-6
COLONEL NOLAN

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If Mr. Martin Huban occupied for sixteen years the position of schoolmaster; if any complaint was made against him by the patron or manager of his school during that time; if a series of complaints was made against him by the inspector of his district during the land agitation, and if Mr. Huban was imprisoned without trial about the same period; and, as Mr. Huban was not brought to trial, and as his demand for an investigation by the Commissioners of Education was refused, if the time had not now arrived at which Mr. Huban might be reinstated in his former position, and the gratuity usually awarded after sixteen years' service given to him?

MR. TREVELYAN

A complaint was made in 1880 by the manager that Martin Huban had compromised him by his suspicious associations and conduct, in consequence of which he (the manager) had threatened him with dismissal. Huban's career as a National School teacher was a very unsatisfactory one. Long before the Land League agitation, and his imprisonment as a "suspect," complaints of neglect and irregularity had been made against him. On 10 different occasions, and on the Reports of three successive Inspectors, between the years 1868 and 1881, such complaints were under the consideration of the Commissioners of National Education; and on two occasions Huban was fined for so serious an offence as falsifying his school records. He was more than once threatened with dismissal, and finally he was dismissed in October, 1881, for gross inefficiency, and the school was struck off the rolls as worthless. This was several months before his arrest as a "suspect," which, therefore, had nothing to do with the matter. The Commissioners could not consent to reinstate this man in their service.

MR. HARRINGTON

asked whether the Chief Secretary was aware of the date of Huban's arrest as a "suspect?"

MR. TREVELYAN

said, that he had not got the date with him; but he had no doubt that the Education Commissioners were right in informing him that the delinquencies were previous to his taking an active part in agitation, at all events to his being punished for taking an active part in agitation.

MR. HARRINGTON

I know something about this matter. Will the right hon. Gentleman make inquiries whether the closing of the school was not due to non-attendance of pupils rather than to any inefficiency of Huban? I saw this man in gaol while a "suspect," and, therefore, take an interest in him. ["Order!"]

[No reply.]