§ *MR. DOOGAN (Tyrone, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Government has decided to close the county road through the hamlet of Coagh against the Nationalist contingents from the Arboe district to attend the public meeting which is to be held on St. Patrick's Day near Cookstown; whether the Government has been informed by their local advisers that the direct road from Arboe to Cookstown runs through Coagh; that there are precedents for Nationalist processions passing through Coagh since 1879; and that the only 419 alternative road is much longer and passes through several miles of an Orange district; whether he is aware that a Nationalist procession last year passed through an Orange suburb of Dungannon, and the police arrangements were so satisfactory that no disturbance whatever took place; and, if so, whether similar arrangements will be made this year to keep the peace in Coagh, whose population is only 394, instead of depriving the people of a Nationalist district of their right to use the public road.
§ MR. ATKINSONMy right hon. friend stated on February 24th † that for the reasons then explained the Government were unable to allow the proposed procession to pass through the village of Coagh. The direct road between Arboe and Cookstown passes through Coagh, and it has been the rule during the past twenty-five years—a rule recognised by both the Orange and Nationalist Parties in the district—that neither Party should march in processional order through the territory of the other Party. The alternative route, to which the same objections do not apply, is only 2½ miles longer than the direct road. On March 17th, 1902, a Nationalist contingent with a flag and drums entered the village of Coagh, and the police experienced the greatest difficulty in safely escorting them out again, with rifles and fixed swords. The practice followed at Dungannon is not to allow either Party, if objected to, to pass through districts claimed by the opposite Party unless it has been the custom to do so, and the arrangements at Dungannon last year were made on this principle.
§ *MR. DOOGANIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that only a few perches of the road pass through Coagh, while the alternative route is 7 miles longer and runs through several red-hot Orange districts, where the chances of attack will be far greater, and that it would require a much larger force of police to keep the peace?
§ MR. ATKINSONMy information does not tally with that.