§ MR. SEXTONI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he has ascertained the facts as to the death of two men, and the dangerous illness of a third, immediately after release from Derry Prison; whether a prisoner, under the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act, named John M'Gee, was released at midnight on Thursday last in a delirious condition, and died of typhus fever on his way home to Falcarragh; and, if he can generally state the result of the inquiry by the medical member of the Irish Prisons Board into the sanitary condition of the Derry Prison.
§ MR. WILLIAM M'ARTHUR (Cornwall Mid, St. Austell)I wish, also, to ask whether there have been any cases of fever in Derry Gaol within the past week, and are there any there now? How many prisoners under the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act were discharged on Thursday last, and was their discharge due to the outbreak of fever or the completion of their sentences; and whether he is aware that two of the prisoners so discharged are since dead of typhus fever; and, if so, whether he intends still to retain other 1142 prisoners, including the honourable Member for the Camborne Division, in Derry Gaol, exposed to the risk of contagion?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI cannot give a conclusive answer to the first paragraph until I receive a report from Londonderry; but I still hope that we may rely on the negative evidence, which is based on the fact that no report of the kind has reached me. Perhaps allusion is made to the case of a man Seize, who was discharged on July 13 on the ground of ill-health. He was at the time thought to be recovering from inflammation of the lungs. With regard to M'Gee, the inquest is still proceeding. I understand that the cause of death was not typhus, but tuberculosis.
§ MR. SEXTONWhether the man died of tuberculosis or typhus, is it not the fact that he was twice in the hospital, and that when he was discharged at 12 o'clock on the Thursday night a warder refused to help him, and he fell forward upon the ground? Is it not further a fact that he was kept so long in prison in a dying state that when he was turned out he was delirious; and did not the emergency men in charge of the farm from which this poor tenant had been evicted when they heard of his death hoist the Union Jack on the roof of the premises?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI rather think that this was not one of the men who had been evicted, but that he was a tenant upon that part of the estate which had been sold. With regard to the earlier part of the question of the right hon. Gentleman, I nave no information except on one point—namely, that he had been in the hospital. I believe that he had been twice in the hospital.
§ MR. T. M. HEALYWill the right hon. Gentleman ascertain whether these savages, the emergency men, did hoist the Union Jack when they heard of the man's death; and will he continue to protect the emergency men in their savageries?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI said nothing about their being protected.
§ MR. T. M. HEALYThat is not the point. Did the emergency men in charge of this farm hoist the Union Jack when they heard that M'Gee was dead?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have received no information on the matter.
§ MR. T. M. HEALYWill the right hon. Gentleman be able to answer the question on Thursday?