HC Deb 31 March 1884 vol 286 cc1153-4
MR. SEXTON

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that the Catholic Bishop of Achonry, the Poor Law Board of Tubbercurry, and the clergy and many of the leading inhabitants of Tubbercurry (county Sligo) and the surrounding district, have applied to Colonel E. H. Cooper, Lieutenant of the county of Sligo, to recommend the Lord Chancellor of Ireland to appoint to the Commission of the Peace Dr. Flannery, of Tubbercurry, for the convenience of that town and of the barony of Leyny, a populous district to the south and west of the town, comprising nearly a hundred square miles, in which district no magistrate resides at present; whether Colonel Cooper has replied that he had already recommended to the Lord Chancellor Mr. J. Ormsby Cooke, who lives in the barony of Corran, six miles to the east of Tubbercurry, and remote from the district referred to in the application to Colonel Cooper; and, what course the Lord Chancellor will adopt in the cases of Dr. Flannery and Mr. Cooke?

COLONEL KING-HARMAN

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If it is not the case that Doctor Flannery of Tubbercurry, who, it is alleged, has been recommended by various parties for the Commission of the Peace, is the Dispensary Doctor of the district, and is, as such, disqualified from being made a magistrate, in ac- cordance with previous rulings of the present Lord Chancellor?

MR. TREVELYAN

Sir, I understand that the facts with regard to the recommendation of these two gentlemen for the Commission of the Peace are as stated in the Question. In the case of Dr. Flannery, the Clerk of the Union has been informed by the Lord Chancellor that, being the doctor of the dispensary district of Tubbercurry, he cannot, according to an existing rule, be appointed a magistrate for the county of Sligo. I presume that the rule in this case is the same rule which is followed by the Lord Chancellor of not appointing publicans. That rule does not profess to be statutable; but I think the hon. Member for Sligo (Mr. Sexton) will see that there is some reason for this rule, because a dispensary doctor is an officer of the Board of Guardians, and, being an ex officio member of the Board by reason of his being a magistrate, he might therefore be his own master. The recommendation on behalf of Mr. Cooke remains for his Lordship's consideration.

MR. SEXTON

Well, then, on an early day I will ask the right hon. Gentleman, how he can reconcile this rule with the case of Dr. Nash, of Manorhamilton, who is a magistrate of the county and also pensioner of the Crown?