HC Deb 20 April 1888 vol 325 c16
MR. H. J. WILSON (York, W.R., Holmfirth)

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that after the arrival of the hon. Member for the Harbour Division of Dublin (Mr. T. C. Harrington) in Ennis, as counsel for Mr. Dunleavy, editor of The Glare Independent, in his trial at that place on the 13th and 14th instant, three police constables were placed on duty outside the hotel at which the hon. Member was staying; that on Friday evening, on his leaving the door, one of them remarked, "There he is, follow him, and see where he is going;" that one of the constables followed the hon. Member, stopping when he stopped, and exercising personal supervision over him in the public thoroughfares; to whose instructions this conduct on the part of the constable was due; and, what was its object?

THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)

The Constabulary Authorities inform me that it is the case that the police did, in the discharge of their duty, observe the movements of the hon. Member referred. to while in Ennis, County Clare. He is Secretary of an Association which is suppressed in that county as being dangerous and criminal; and, in view of the late attempts to revive the Association there, the Constabulary felt called upon to act as they did. The instructions emanated from the local police.