§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland if he is aware that the Dungiven magistrates, in the recent case of Mr. John Harrington, national school teacher, had either permitted Mr. E. F. Bannon, inspector of national schools, to act as justice of the peace, or had taken evidence in secret without oath or opportunity to the defendant's solicitor to cross-examine him; and, seeing that, in consequence of these proceedings, the case was quashed by the King's Bench after Harrington had suffered a week's imprisonment, what action, if any, he 700 proposes to take in order to avoid such proceedings in future.
§ *THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. REDMOND BARRY,) Tyrone, N.My right hon. friend the Chief Secretary has fully stated the facts of this case in reply to a Question put by the hon. Member. The action of the magistrates in questioning the inspector in their private room instead of in open Court appears to have been due merely to an error of judgment. In any event, however, my right hon. friend the Attorney-General has no jurisdiction over magistrates in regard to the exercise of their judicial functions.
§ MR. REDMOND BARRYNot over the magistrates. A communication is, I believe, to be addressed to the National Board on the subject.
§ MR. LONSDALE (Armagh, Mid.)I beg to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether he intends to apply for a change of venue in the case of Mr. Peter J. Kelly, J.P., who has been committed for trial at the Galway assizes on a charge of inciting to murder Lord Ashtown.
I beg also to ask Mr. Attorney-General for Ireland whether he intends to move for a change of venue in the case of Mr. D. Beirne, J.P., and others, who have been sent for trial by the Hill street magistrates on charges of unlawful and riotous assembly and assaulting the police on the 28th May last.
§ MR. REDMOND BARRYMy right hon. friend has asked me to answer these two Questions. No application with a view to having the venue changed in these cases could be made until after indictment found by the grand jury at the approaching assizes. In the meantime my right hon. friend is not prepared to make any definite statement upon the subject.