§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that on 20th March a number of Orangemen returning to their homes in Culready, County Derry, were stopped in the public road by a body of police, and obliged to proceed to their homes by a route two and a half miles longer; and, if so, will he state by what authority this action was taken by the police; and if he will take steps to secure that such action will not be repeated.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) A number of Orangemen, accompanied by a drumming party, proposed to march through a locality where, in the opinion of the police, there was good reason to believe that danger of collision with a rival party existed. At the suggestion of the police the Orangemen desisted, and party heat, which might otherwise have been engendered, was thus, with their co-operation, avoided.