§ MR. LONSDALE (Armagh, Mid.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether the organisers of a Nationalist demonstration at Mitchelstown, on 9th September, applied to the authorities at Dublin Castle for the return of a flag taken by the police from the rioters at Mitchelstown in September, 1887; whether a reply was sent to the effect that the flag was being returned, but the authorities regretted that it could not be delivered back in time to be used in the demonstration; and, if so, who was the official responsible for returning the flag and sending the message accompanying it.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The suggestions of fact made in the Question are not correct. What happened was this. I was asked by an hon. Member of this House whether a flag taken from a procession at Mitchelstown in 1888 could be returned to those who proposed to have a procession commemorating persons who lost their lives on that occasion. I replied that I did not know whether any such flag was in existence or not, but that if it was, and the persons who claimed it could show that they were the persons entitled to have it back, I was willing it should be restored to them. I was afterwards informed that a flag had been found, but do not know whether it was the flag in question nor what happened afterwards. The procession 859 was held so soon after the date of the request and of my letter that I do not think the flag can have been given back before the procession took place, and I recollect that in a newspaper notice I saw of the procession some little time later there was no mention of the flag.