§ MR. KENDAL O'BRIEN (Tipperary, Mid)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland can he state what was the charge against Mr. Corr, recently sentenced to imprisonment at Templemore by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction, constituted under the Act of 1887; and is he aware that the magistrates refused to allow counsel for Mr. Corr to test the competency and accuracy of the Government note taken, and will he state on whose evidence the prosecution relied; whether, seeing that the 596 County of Tipperary, in which the prosecution took place, has been for a considerable period exceptionally free from crime, he will take steps to stop such prosecutions in that county.
§ MR. ATKINSONThe charge upon which Mr. Corr was convicted was one of taking part in an unlawful assembly. The accused has, I understand, appealed, and while that appeal is pending I must respectfully decline to answer any question touching the merits of the case or its conduct in the Court from whose decision the appeal has been taken. It is true that the County of Tipperary is unusually free from crimes of violence, but the crimes of organised boycotting and intimidation prevail in some districts, and so far from stopping such prosecutions as are referred to, the. Government will, wherever possible, endeavour to bring to justice those who are guilty of crimes of the latter description.