§ MR. J. E. REDMONDasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been called to the trial, under the Crimes Act, of a number of young farmers at Newtownbarry, county Wexford, on a charge of intimidation; whether his attention has been drawn to the report that the presiding magistrate, Mr. M'Leod, R.M., in sentencing the prisoners, said, in reference to some ivy leaves worn by them, that —
They had come into that Court wearing bunches of green, in open defiance of Law and order. He would let them see the Law was too strong for them;whether it is against any Law for Irishmen to wear green; and, whether the wearing of the green can be legally regarded as an aggravation of the offence committed by the prisoners?
§ MR. TREVELYANI have received a Report from the Resident Magistrate, from which it appears that a number of young men—very few of them farmers, as described in the Question—were convicted of intimidation, that their conduct and demeanour on the occasion of the trial were reprehensible, and that, before passing sentence, the magistrate told them so in words to the following effect:—It would have been more seemly if the defendants had expressed regret for their misconduct, and would have given a promise that in future there would be no repetition of the offence, when the Bench would be only too glad to make the sentence light; but instead of that, they had come into the town of Enniscorthy, and into that Court, with a display of laurel leaves as if they wished to set the law at defiance, and glorified in intimidating a poor, inoffensive old man. 428 He also said that they would find the law too strong for them.