HC Deb 18 March 1901 vol 91 cc246-7
MR. CONOR O'KELLY

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, whether he is aware that Mr. John O'Malley, a licensed publican of Belmullet, having declined to close his premises on 2nd February, on the occasion of the funeral of Her late Majesty, in accordance with the orders of the police, they entered his shop and only refrained from putting up the window shutters when Mr. O'Malley eventually requested his assistants to close his shop; and, can he state by whose authority the Belmullet police ordered the local publicans to close their premises on the occasion referred to.

MR. WYNDHAM

The allegation that the police entered Mr. O'Maliey's premises on the 2nd February is without foundation. Several publicans asked the District Inspector on the previous day whether they were required to close, and that officer expressed the opinion, erroneously, that the day came within the provisions of the Licensing Act of 1872.

MR. WILLIAM REDMOND

Will compensation be given to the publicans for their loss of trade through having acted on instructions erroneously given by the police?

MR. WYNDHAM

I do not know whether the error was corrected in time or not. In the only other instance in which it was made it was corrected in time.