§ MR. FLYNNI bag to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland if his attention has been called to the proceedings at the Cork Winter Assizes, in December last, when, in the case of a prisoner, Eugene Heffernan, charged with the murder of his mother, thirty jurors were ordered to stand by by the Crown Solicitor; and, if so, will he say whether this action was taken with the sanction of the Irish law officers.
§ MR. ATKINSONThe Crown Solicitor, in setting aside twenty-nine, not thirty, jurors in this case, acted in strict accordance with the directions contained in the Circular addressed to Crown Solicitors dealing with such matters, to which I have frequently referred. He was influenced in his action by reliable information which he had received from a respectable juror and from the police, that an effort would be made by the relatives of the accused through their extensive trade connections in the City of Cork to influence the jurors in the prisoner's favour.
§ MR. FLYNNI beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether he is aware that at the recent Cork Winter Assizes, December, 1903, in connection with the trial of Connor O'Gorman on the charge of fratricide, nineteen jurors were ordered to stand by; and, if so, whether he can state what reasons, if any, were given by the Crown Solicitor for objecting to these men serving on the jury, and also, how many of the nineteen were Roman Catholics.
§ MR. ATKINSONThe Crown Solicitor set aside these jurors because he had reasonable grounds for believing that, if sworn, they would not give an impartial verdict. I am not able to give any information as to the religious belief of the jurors set aside.
§ MR. FLYNNAm I to understand from the right hon. Gentleman that these proceedings have the approval of himself and the law officers of the Crown?
§ MR. ATKINSONCertainly.
§ MR. FLYNNAnd are we to understand that these jurors in this particular case were not to be believed, that they were perjurers?
§ MR. ATKINSONNo, Sir, you are to understand nothing of the sort.