§ MR. JAMES O'KELLY (Roscommon, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that Mr. Patrick Dooley and his sister were evicted from their home at Ardkeenagh, county Roscommon, on June 14th, 1905, though he and the other tenants on the estate had offered terms of purchase which the agent, Mr. Ernest H. Browne, J. P. Tullamore, refused to accept; and that the police authorities assisted in carrying out the eviction in question, and subsequently allowed the tenant's house to
† See page 777742 be burnt to the ground; whether he can state by whose instructions the house was burned; and whether he will take any steps through the Estates Commissioners or otherwise for the assistance of the evicted tenant.(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) Negotiations were entered into for the sale of this estate in May last, but they proved abortive. The ex-tenant named in the Question was evicted for nonpayment of rent, and the eviction was carried out by the sheriff, who was protected by a force of police. There is no foundation for the statement that the police allowed the house to be burnt, nor are they in a position to say at whose instigation the burning took place. I have no power to take any steps for the assistance of the evicted tenant.