§ MR. MACARTNEY(for Colonel WARING) (Down, N.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is a fact that, at the spring assizes held at Tralee on 10th March 1886, Mr. O'Driscoll, baronial high constable for Iveragh, asked leave of the Grand Jury to resign his office, on the ground that a portion of his barony—namely, the parish of Glanbeigh, was in so lawless a condition that he found himself unable to collect the county cess; whether it is a fact that he has visited certain lands three times with a view to making seizures, but found on the first and second occasions that all the cattle had been driven off on his approach; and, on the third, whether, having made seizures, he was compelled to abandon them by a mob of upwards of one hundred people; whether the police, though present, were powerless to protect him in the execution of his duty; whether the Grand Jury accepted Mr. O'Driscoll's resignation; and, whether they apprehend the gravest difficulty in inducing any one to accept the responsibility of undertaking the office of high constable of the barony of Iveragh?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. JOHN MORLEY) (Newcastle-on-Tyne)I am informed that Mr. O'Driscoll has resigned his post, and that the Grand Jury have accepted his resignation. The facts as to the attempted seizures are as stated. The police were quite able to protect Mr. O'Driscoll, and, as a matter of fact, did so. The failure of the seizure on the third occasion was due to the fact that there was not a sufficient number of drovers for the cattle, and it is not the duty of the police to act in that capacity. The County Inspector gives it as his personal opinion that, owing to the difficulty of getting money in that part of Kerry, which he describes as wretched and impoverished, he fancies no person would care to take the situation in question.