HC Deb 11 July 1889 vol 338 c120
MR. MAC NEILL

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether it is the fact that from Sunday the 30th of June, till Sunday 7th July, Father Stephens and Mr. Kelly were obliged to keep their cells in Derry Gaol, and were deprived of exercise owing to the Governor of the gaol, Captain Wilson, insisting that any exercise they took should be taken in the company of the persons convicted of the insurance frauds in Belfast. Did Dr. O'Farrell, of the Prisons Board, on Saturday last visit Father Stephens and Mr. Kelly, and did both these gentlemen refuse to take any indulgence in the matter of exercise on the ground of ill-health, and state that on principle they declined to exercise with common criminals; were these gentlemen permitted, as a matter of fact, to exercise by themselves after the visit of Dr. O'Farrell, and did Dr. O'Farrell report that their health had suffered by close confinement for a week to their cells; why were Father Stephens and Mr. Kelly, who have been imprisoned for several months, ordered by the Governor on Sunday week for the first time to exercise with the Belfast swindlers; and, in giving this order, did the Governor act on his own responsibility, or by the direction of the Prisons Board?

* MR. A. J. BALFOUR

I must ask the hon. Member to postpone the question until to-morrow. I only received a final telegram in reference to it just before coming down to the House.