CAPTAIN CRAIGI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the number of cases recently reported from the county of Clare, where firearms have been used for purposes of outrage, since 1st January, 1907, where persons respectively named Kelly, M'Inerney, Scanlon, Maher, Frawley, Doherty, and FitzGerald (seven cases in all) were shot at and some of them badly wounded; was any person convicted in respect of any of these outrages; and has his attention been called to the charge of the Judge of Assize to the Clare Grand Jury.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe offences in which firearms were used were not seven but four, as I informed the hon. Member on 27th February.†In the case of Kelly, a shot was fired outside his house, but not at him. McInerney and Scanlon were,
†See (4) Debates, clxx., 57.52 when working together, fired at by one man and injured, but not seriously. Maher was fired at, but not injured. Frawley was fired at and seriously injured. In the first three of these cases, the accused were acquitted at the recent Assizes. In the fourth the accused is on remand. In the case of Doherty no firearm was used, and the police authorities do not regard Fitzgerald's case as one of outrage. I have seen the Judge's address, which bears out the facts stated.