HC Deb 28 March 1901 vol 92 cc80-2
MR. CULLINAN (Tipperary, S.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware † See Debates, Vol. lxxxix., page 487. that there were no reporters present at the meetings at which the lion. Member for Mid-Tipperary was reported to have made the speeches for which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland removed him from the commission of the peace in the county of Tipperary; will he explain by what authority the Lord Chancellor acted in calling upon the hon. Member to convict himself of the alleged offence by acknowledging that he had made the speeches as reported; and on what grounds the Lord Chancellor came to the conclusion that there was a difference in the case of the hon. Member for Mid-Tipperary and those of the hon. Member for South Sligo and the hon. Member for North Mayo, so that he refused to appoint the hon. Member for Mid-Tipperary on his re-election as chairman of the Tipperary District Council, but appointed the other two hon. Members on their re-election to their respective offices. I wish to point out that very important parts of the original question have been eliminated, and without them the question is useless.

* MR. SPEAKER

The hon. Member could have appealed to me if necessary. If he cares to postpone it I will consider if anything more should be admitted. I cannot deal with it now.

MR. CULLINAN

No; I will put it as it is.

MR. WYNDHAM

The Lord Chancellor is unable to say whether the fact is as stated in the first paragraph. But the speeches, as reported, were of a character entirely inconsistent with the position of a magistrate, and the hon. Member in question, when furnished by the Lord Chancellor with a report of his speeches, did not repudiate the language attributed to him. The Lord Chancellor considered it his duty, in the exercise of his undoubted disciplinary control over the magistracy, to remove the hon. Member from the commission. This control is extended to ex officio magistrates by Section 95 (2) of the Act of 1898. I replied on Monday to the last paragraph.†

MR. WILLIAM JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)

May I ask if the hon. Member for † See preceding volume, page 1114. Mid-Tipperary is the Mr. Kendal O'Brien who, when he became an ex officio magistrate, three times refused to take the oath of allegiance to Her late Majesty, and did not do so until he was compelled?

MR. CULLINAN

Can the right hon. Gentleman give the House the phraseology of the speeches of which he complains?

MR. WYNDHAM

was understood to decline to do that.

MR. KENDAL O'BRIEN (Tipperary, Mid)

Is it not a fact that the other Members mentioned in the question never apologised or withdrew their words?

MR. CULLINAN

Are we to understand that a Member who is entitled to sit in this House and legislate for the Empire at largo is to be deprived of the privilege of sitting on a local bench of magistrates?

[No answer was returned.]