§ MR. FLAVIN (Kerry, N.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney General for Ireland whether he is aware that at the Cahirciveen petty sessions, which were held about the middle of June, 1900, the following magistrates attended: Messrs. J. W. Leahy, A. J. M'Dermott, R.M., and the Hon. Francis Spring Rice, and that a local licensed publican named Mary O'Neil, of Renard, was fined by those magistrates in a sum of £2, and a record on the licence; whether the offence charged against Mary O'Neil was the sale of drink after the legal closing hours; whether he is aware that the only evidence given in this case was that the licensed publican treated gratuitously the man found on the premises to a half glass of whisky; and, whether he can state what offence was committed.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURThe facts are as stated in the first and second paragraphs, except that the date of the petty sessions was the 12th May. As regards the third paragraph, the decision of the justices at potty sessions was upheld on an appeal brought by Mrs. O'Neil to the Killarney quarter sessions; evidence to the effect stated may have been given on her behalf—for that appears to be the usual defence—but evidence of a sale of drink, apparently of a more convincing character, was produced by the police against this publican, who has three times previously within the last three years been convicted of a similar offence.
§ MR. FLAVINWas the man found on licensed premises a fisherman who had slept seven miles away the night before, so that he was a bona fide traveller?
§ *MR. SPEAKEROrder, order !