§ MR. SEXTONasked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, Upon what authority he has declared that there is no foundation for the statement that Mr. George Bolton, and other officials, endeavoured to incite or terrify Thomas Nolan to give false evidence in the Ballyforan murder case; whether he will lay upon the Table any documents on which he rests his declaration; whether the statement handed by Nolan to Con- 1566 stable O'Brien was a statement of his ignorance of the crime: if it was at the instance of the Irish Executive that the Board of Commissioners of National Education dismissed Thomas Nolan from his post of teacher whilst he was in prison; why the Crown did not examine Nolan in Court, or put him on his trial, if, as alleged, he made a statement in prison betraying complicity in the crime, or guilty knowledge of it; and, whether Mr. George Bolton denies that he privately visited another of the prisoners, Thomas Kennedy, in his cell, and that Kennedy hanged himself immediately after?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALKER)My statement was on the authority of every person appearing to have knowledge of the subject, including the officials, five in number, to whom Thomas Nolan refers. It is not the intention of the Government to lay documents upon the Table, especially as there are two men still in custody charged with the murder, and whose trials are pending. The statement handed by Nolan to O'Brien was not a statement of his ignorance of the crime. The Commissioners of National Education did not dismiss Nolan from the post of teacher, nor did the Irish Executive ever apply to them to do so. The manager, the parish priest, informed the Commissioners that he had appointed a successor to him. The Crown did not examine Nolan as a witness, as they believed his evidence unreliable; and they did not put him on his trial, as there was no sufficient evidence against him. As to the other person, Kennedy, Mr. Bolton did not visit him privately. Kennedy, on the 2nd June, wrote a letter, in his own handwriting, expressing a wish to see him, and Mr. Bolton did see him, but not alone. Kennedy committed suicide on the 30th June.
§ MR. SEXTONMight I ask the hon. and learned Gentleman whether he will, when the trials connected with this case are over, lay the documents on the Table?
§ THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. WALKER)I did not at all say that.
§ MR. SEXTONIs this, then, the position of the hon. and learned Gentleman—that he denies the truth of a state- 1567 ment publicly made, with the name of the author attached, and that he refuses to state the authority on which he grounds his denial?