§ MR. McKILLOPTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that the present sergeant of the Royal Irish Constabulary stationed at Poyntzpass, county Armagh, is of a different religion from the majority of the inhabitants; will he say whether this also applied to his predecessors; whether a sergeant professing the same 153 religion as the majority of the inhabitants has ever been appointed to this town; and whether, seeing that there is no magistrate sitting at Poyntzpass Petty Sessions of the same religion as the majority of the inhabitants, he will consider the advisability of at least appointing a sergeant whose religious views are in sympathy with those of the inhabitants.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The Inspector-General informs me that the sergeant of Royal Irish Constabulary at Poyntzpass is a Protestant, as were his predecessors for a number of years past. The inhabitants of the village itself are about equally divided as between Catholics and Protestants, but the latter are largely in the majority in the district of which the village forms part. The Inspector-General does not propose to remove the present sergeant, who impartially discharges his duties.