§ MR. SEXTONI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that, at about 1 a.m. on Sunday the 30th ultimo, a man knocked at the door of the house, 47, Sheriff Street, Ballymacarret, Belfast, into which a Catholic family named Brady, composed of an invalid mother and two daughters, had moved a few days before, and warned the inmates, whom he roused from sleep, that, if they did not get out of the house by 4 o'clock that day, the house would be pulled down about them, for no "Papishes" were wanted there; that the women began to pack their furniture at daylight, but, the day being Sunday, were unable to get it removed by 4 o'clock; that at that hour a mob of some 700 men and boys assembled before the house, broke all the windows, smashed and scattered the furniture, and pelted and beat the three women, chasing them to a considerable distance, and inflicted such serious injuries that the old woman is scarcely able to speak, and neither of the younger women has been able to return to work; what the police did to prevent or oppose the commission of this outrage; and what arrests have been made?
MR. J. MORLEYI am informed that the occurrence referred to has formed the subject of misleading reports in the local press. The woman referred to summoned Haddock for malicious injury to her door, and the case was dismissed in the Police Court on Friday last. It transpired at the hearing of the case that 1424 on the morning of the 30th July (Saturday) Haddock kicked at her door and damaged it, told Mrs. Brady to clear out before 4 o'olock on the same date, that he would have no Fenians or Papists there, that she hired a van for Sunday to remove her furniture, that a crowd collected and cut some of the ropes, that some of the pictures were broken, and that clods were thrown at her. This evidence was given by the complainant, and was corroborated by her daughter and another woman. The defence was that Haddock had been seen talking to complainant two hours before the occurrence, that he is a connection of hers, that what occurred was merely a family brawl, that the Brady's brought it all on themselves, that there are three or four Catholic families living beside Mrs. Brady who are on friendly terms with their Protestant neighbours, that the crowd consisted of 30 or 40 children, and that Mrs. Brady threw water on them from a window. This evidence was given by a Catholic neighbour. There appears to be no foundation for the allegation that bigotry or intolerance was at the bottom of the occurrence; it seems to have been an ordinary family squabble, and the police report that nothing was done on the occasion which would warrant them in taking any action in the case.