HC Deb 26 November 1888 vol 331 cc142-4
THE LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN (Mr. SEXTON) (Belfast, W.)

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Why public meetings announced to be held on Friday last in Kilkenny, New Ross, and other places in Ireland, were prohibited by Proclamation; why, although the meetings had been announced for weeks, and extensive preparations were made in many districts, the Proclamations were not promulgated until the date of meeting; whether meetings for the same purpose have been held annually in many places in Ireland during the last 20 years without any incident prejudicial to public peace and order, and without interference by the Government; and, why the course of repression has now been adopted?

THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. MADDEN)(who replied) said (Dublin University)

In answer to the Questions of the hon. Member, I have to say that the Proclamations referred to in the first and second paragraphs of the Question were issued in each case as soon as possible after the Government had received definite information that the meeting would be held. As regards the action of Government during the last 20 years with regard to such meetings, I have to say that there does not appear to have been any uniform line of action adopted by the present Government or by its Predecessors in Office, who sometimes allowed the demonstrations to take place and sometimes prohibited them. The meetings referred to in the Question were prohibited because the Government were advised that they were illegal in their character, and because they believed that it was for the public benefit that they should not be held.

MR. SEXTON

said, he should like to press the Government on this point. These meetings had been held every year since 1867, and had never resulted in any breach of the peace. Under what law did the Government prohibit them on this occasion?

MR. MADDEN

I endeavoured to convey in my answer the fact that they were prohibited because they were illegal under the Common Law.

MR. SEXTON

In what sense illegal? I shall have to ask leave to move the Adjournment unless I receive a proper answer.

MR. MADDEN

They were illegal because held for an illegal purpose.

MR. SEXTON

What is that purpose?

MR. MADDEN

That purpose, Sir, was to commemorate, or to celebrate and recommend to the public, the action of certain persons who had suffered for an offence against the law of the land. A public demonstration of such a character is an illegal meeting at Common Law.

MR. SEXTON

If it is illegal now, why did Conservative and Liberal Governments, for the last 20 years, allow it to take place in Ireland without even a word of opposition?

MR. MADDEN

These meetings have been, from time to time, forbidden by both Conservative and Liberal Governments.

MR. CONYBEARE (Cornwall, Camborne)

asked whether a similar meeting in this country would be illegal at Common Law; whether they had not frequently been held, and had never been put down?

MR. MADDEN

It is not my duty to answer for this country; but this I may say—that the Common Law is the same in both countries.

MR. W. A. MACDONALD (Queen's Co., Ossory)

inquired whether an exactly similar meeting had not been allowed to take place in Dublin yesterday, although, according to the statement of the Solicitor General, it was illegal?

MR. MADDEN

The hon. Member must give Notice of Question as to any particular meeting.

MR. SEXTON

If some were permitted and others prohibited, is it because there is one Common Law in Dublin and another everywhere else?

MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)

I beg to ask the Solicitor General whether these meetings were not intended to celebrate the murder of a policeman at Manchester?

MR. MADDEN

Yes, Sir.