§ MR. JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that, on Wednesday evening, 5th March, a number of Protestants, returning from Pallaskenry, County Limerick, after attending an auction there, were waylaid and attacked with stones by persons lying in ambush; that several persons were struck, and one severely cut in the forehead with a stone; and that the clergyman of the parish has been pelted with stones and his family insulted; whether he has any evidence to show that these disturbances were occasioned by the denunciations of Roman Catholic Priests, which followed the recent conversion to Protestantism of a Roman Catholic servant; and 692 whether, in consequence of the condition of the district, an extra force of police had to be brought there for the protection of the Protestants, who are boycotted and in danger of their lives?
§ MR. MADDENThe Constabulary authorities report that stones were thrown as alleged in the question, and that some of the party were struck but not injured. The police have no information as to the clergyman or his family having been interfered with. There is no evidence before the police of the nature indicated in the second paragraph. The reply to the inquiry in the third paragraph is in the negative.