§ MR. T. M. HEALYI beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland is it true that a letter written from Cork Gaol by Mr. John Slattery, as President of the South of Ireland Pig Buyers' Association, in favour of the proposed Cork, Fermoy, and Wexford Railway, was stopped by the Governor, and its publication disallowed; whether Mr. Slattery, being a bail prisoner, is entitled to publish such, letters; and whether Mr. Davitt, Mr. Healy, and other bail prisoners in Richmond Gaol in 1883, were permitted to publish letters on topics far more controversial?
§ MR. MADDENThe General Prisons Board report that it is the case that the Governor refused to allow the letter in question to pass out of the prison, it being contrary to practice to allow prisoners, bail or otherwise, to communicate with the Press. Mr. Slattery was, however, allowed to sign a Petition in favour of the proposed railway. I am informed that the publication of letters 861 referred to in the last paragraph was not with the sanction of the Prison Authorities.
§ MR. T. M. HEALYWill the hon. and learned Gentleman refer to Hansard and read the statement of the then Chief Secretary (Sir G. Trevelyan), who spoke of a letter so sent to him through the Prisons Board, a letter, I believe, from Mr. Davitt.
§ * MR. MADDENThe information furnished me by the Prisons Board is, that the letters in question were not authorised by the Prison Authorities. That is the only information I have on the subject.
§ MR. M. HEALYMay I ask if there is anything in the Prison Rules preventing the letters being sent?
§ * MR. MADDENI cannot answer that question without looking at the Prison Rules; but the whole subject is obviously a matter of discipline.
§ Mr. J. O'CONNORAre not first-class misdemeanants and bail prisoners allowed to communicate with persons outside the gaol on matters of business?
§ * MR. MADDENI am quite aware that that is so, under certain circumstances; but I cannot agree that writing letters to newspapers should be regarded as the conduct of business.