§ MR. MACVEAGH (Down, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether be is aware that Mr. P. J. Kelly, R.M., has stated in Court that he was not aware that a sentence of imprisonment with hard labour entails disqualification from service on public boards; and whether he can state if Mr. P. J. Kelly is one of the magistrates of whose legal knowledge the Lord Lieutenant is satisfied, as required by statute.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) This Question has been referred to Mr. Kelly, who emphatically denies having made use of the observation attributed to him. He was well aware of the disqualification prescribed by statute, but it was not until after the sentence imposing hard labour had been passed on the defendant in the case before the Court that attention was drawn, for the first time, by counsel for the defendant, to the fact that the latter was a district councillor. Mr. Kelly was not previously aware of this fact, and it was to this alone that he referred when he remarked that he saw no reason in the fact to alter his concurrence in the decision announced by the Chairman. The reply to the second part of the Question is in the affirmative.