§ MR. W. KENNY (Dublin, St. Stephen's Green)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to speeches made at Lismore, County Waterford, by, amongst others, an hon. Member of this House, on the 18th February last, at a meeting held for the purpose of denouncing a person resident in the locality who had taken a farm from which a tenant had been evicted 12 years previously; whether the police refused to allow the meeting to be held beside or on the farm in question, but allowed it to take place at a distance of one mile off; if the police have orders to permit such meetings provided they are not held in the immediate vicinity of the evicted farms; whether he has been advised that the meeting was an illegal assembly, and 1452 that the language made use of by the speakers was sufficient to maintain a criminal prosecution; and if he will state why such a meeting is permitted, and no step taken to prevent the use of such denunciations?
MR. J. MORLEYMy attention was drawn to the speeches made at the meeting referred to, and the statement in the second paragraph of the question is accurate. As to the third paragraph, the police have no general instructions in the matter; each case is dealt with, as it arises, on its merits. I have not been advised that the meeting was an illegal assembly; and as regards the speeches made, I was advised they were not of a sufficiently violent character to sustain a criminal prosecution for conspiracy or otherwise.