§ MR. CONYBEAREI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will state, for each of the months since September last, the number of Catholic prisoners confined in Derry Gaol, and the terms for which they have been imprisoned; whether any Catholic clergyman has, during that period, been permitted to visit such prisoners; has any Catholic service been conducted in the prison chapel during that period; whether he still refuses to sanction the appointment by the Bishop of the Diocese to the prison chaplaincy of such clergyman as the Bishop may see fit to nominate?
§ MR. W. JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)May I ask if the hon. Member for Camborne, when in prison, received the ministrations of a Catholic chaplain?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe answer to the first paragraph is too long to read to the House, but I have directed a copy to be sent to the hon. Member who puts the question. Many of the prisoners have been confined but a very short time in Londonderry Prison, as since December last those Roman Catholic prisoners; whose sentences amounted to a month or more have from week to week been removed to another prison to which a Roman Catholic clergyman is attached. In accordance with the practice of the Service, in relation to prisoners of any denomination other than those of the paid chaplains attached to a prison, the 1151 Governor of Londonderry Prison duly reports to the nearest officiating Roman Catholic clergyman the committal of every new prisoner of that religion, with an intimation that permission can be had for visiting such prisoners. Such permission has, however, been availed of by the Roman Catholic clergyman of the district only eight times during the period in question, and then only at the request of individual prisoners. Owing to the refusal of the Vicar Capitular to nominate a successor to the late Roman Catholic chaplain, as fully explained in reply to a Parliamentary question in February last, no service has been conducted in the Roman Catholic Chapel in this prison during the period named. The Board are and have been most anxious that the Roman Catholic Bishop should nominate a clergyman to this prison, and in two letters addressed to the Vicar Capitular in September last they specially invited him to nominate some clergyman as successor to the late chaplain. Up to the present, however, they regret to state no such nomination has been made.
§ MR. T. M. HEALYWas this one of the questions with regard to which Sir L. Simmonds was sent to communicate with the Pope, while pretending to go over about the Malta marriage question?
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!
§ MR. MACNEILLIS it not a fact that the Rev. Dr. O'Doherty, the Roman Catholic chaplain of Derry Gaol, was dismissed from his office because he refused to attend a local inquiry held by Mr. Joyce, and refused to answer questions which he considered ought not to have been put to him as a Roman Catholic chaplain; has his action been ratified by the Vicar Capitular of the diocese; whether since September last there has been no Roman Catholic chaplain in Derry Gaol; and whether Catholics under lengthened terms of punishment have been removed to Belfast and other prisons?
§ MR. SPEAKERThe hon. Gentleman will obtain better information by putting a question on the Paper.
§ MR. MACNEILLAs a matter of personal explanation, I may say that I have asked every one of these questions before.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURMr. O'Doherty was dismissed for breaking the Prison Regulations. If hon. Members wish for the details I must ask them to put a question on the Paper. I think it will not be denied that the ordinary procedure expected from a prison official was not followed, and we cannot accept his re-nomination by the Bishop of the diocese.
§ MR. T. M. HEALYHave the Government gone the length of remonstrating at Rome as to the conduct of the Bishop?
§ MR. PARNELLDoes the right hon. Gentleman think that Roman Catholic prisoners should be permanently deprived of the consolation of their religion, in order to gratify his feelings as to the duties of the Roman Catholic Bishops? I think that this is not an unreasonable question, seeing that many months have elapsed during which these prisoners have been without any of the administrations of their religion.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI have done my very best to minimise the evil effects of the action of the Vicar Capitular in this case, by sending the prisoners, as far as possible, to other prisons; I wish that my efforts in this direction had been seconded by the acting Bishop.
§ MR. P. O'BRIEN (Monaghan, N.)Was not a summons served on Dr. McAlroy, chaplain of Tullamore Gaol, to give evidence before Mr. Joyce relative to a suit of clothes which was taken in to the hon. Member for North-East Cork (Mr. W. O'Brien) when a prisoner in that gaol; and is it not a fact that although Dr. McAlroy refused to appear or give evidence he was neither dismissed or censured; and whether he, the Chief Secretary, can explain why Father O'Doherty has been differently dealt with?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI musk ask for notice of that question.
§ MR. MACNEILLWas not the only offence of the Rev. Dr. O'Doherty that Mr. Joyce, the Prisons Board Inspector, had written a letter asking him to come over and give evidence in an investigation in a friendly way, and that Dr. O'Doherty had not done so?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURThe principal evil effected is that some of these prisoners have been deprived of the administrations of their religion.