HC Deb 03 June 1886 vol 306 cc833-4
CAPTAIN M'CALMONT (Antrim, E.)

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether the Rev. John Fleming, Incumbent of Ventry, county Kerry, has been lately boycotted at the instance of the National League, chiefly for having interposed to protect two parishioners who had come under its ban; whether he was at once unable to procure the ordinary necessaries of life, and had to procure his supplies from a distances of sixty miles; whether, a little later on, his wife fell seriously ill of an illness which ended in her death, and whether, when at her worst, the local band turned out, accompanied by a large crowd shouting, and deliberately played within fifty yards of her bedroom window; and, whether Mr. Fleming was compelled to send forty miles for a coffin and hearse, as he dared not even ask for one to be supplied in the locality, and was then obliged to remove her remains into another county for burial?

THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY) (Newcastle-on-Tyne)

The Rev. Mr. Fleming was, I understand, partially "Boycotted" for the cause mentioned in the Question for some time down to the middle of April last, when he became more obnoxious, in consequence of an eviction which he carried out, and he has since experienced difficulty in procuring supplies, except from a distance. A short time after the evic- tion, a number of people assembled and built a house for the evicted person, and on this occasion the band attended and played near Mr. Fleming's house. Mrs. Fleming was ill at the time, and died two days afterwards. Her coffin was procured from Killarney, and she was buried in Waterford, not, however, through compulsion, but from choice.