§ MR. SLOANTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the disorderly conduct of footballers at Stewartstown on Sunday 1st ultimo, and on other occasions, and to their use of obscene language to persons leaving divine service; and whether, seeing that football playing during divine service on Sundays in this town has become a nuisance to the inhabitants, he can see his way to put a stop to the practice, or confine the players to a quarter where respectable persons will be protected from such treatment in future.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) I am informed by the police authorities that on Sunday, 1st April, a party of football players from Cookstown drove through Stewartstown, both when going to and coming from Coalisland, where a football match was played. Four policemen, who accompanied the party, have reported that their conduct was good, and that no obscene language, or language of any kind, was used by them to persons leaving divine service. The game of football is not played on Sundays within a quarter of a mile of Stewartstown, and no complaints of disorderly conduct by football players have been made to the police authorities in regard to the 1st April or any other occasion.