HC Deb 26 July 1888 vol 329 c542
THE LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN (Mr. SEXTON)(for Mr. SHEEHY) (Galway, S.)

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, What was the nature of the incitement to resistance on which the authorities considered themselves justified in excluding the hon. Member for South Galway from the immediate scene of evictions on the Vandeleur property; what was the occasion of such incitement; and, if any such incitement has been made by the hon. Member, why has not the Government taken proceedings under the provisions of the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act?

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

As reported in The Freeman's Journal the hon. Member made a speech at Kilrush on May 4 last, in which he said that— Mr. Dillon and he had come down to take a look over the battlefield—the Vandeleur Estate—on which the landlords were going to face them in West Clare, and to see if the popular forces were in good order. He had no fear of what the result would be. The Government appeared to imagine that they could support the Union by the same means by which they carried the Union; that they could drive the people of Clare to desperation, and then that Colonel Turner could dragoon them. Let them stick by b the national organization and by the Plan of Campaign. On July 21 he is reported in The Times to have said that— What he himself wanted the world to understand was that no man would go tamely out of his house; that no man would be so base or so cowardly as not to resist the forces that attempted to root him from his place.