§ MR. MOORE (Armagh, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that Constable Weir, after eighteen years service in the Royal Irish Constabulary without an unfavourable record, was recently dismissed from the force for absence without leave for ten minutes on a matter of extreme personal urgency 370 connected with the illness of his wife: whether no complaint was made against this constable for nearly three weeks after the alleged offence; if he will state by whom such complaint was made and by whom it was inquired into; and whether the document dismissing this constable was signed by the Chief Secretary or by Sir Antony MacDonnell.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) Constable Weir, who had seventeen and a half years' service, was dismissed from the force for having absented himself from the vicinity of his barracks in contravention of his officers' express orders. It is not the fact that there was no unfavourable record against him. Constable Weir's misconduct was reported on the day on which it occurred. The complaint was made by the district inspector. No formal inquiry was necessary, seeing that the constable admitted the offence.