CAPTAIN CRAIGI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been drawn to the address of Mr. Justice Gibson, at the opening of the West Meath Assizes at Mullingar, when he stated that there had been twenty-nine cases of cattle-driving, in none of which was anybody made amenable or prosecuted, and that the state of the county appeared to be far from satisfactory; to the statement of Mr. Justice Kenny, in addressing the grand jury at the opening of the assizes for the County Leitrim at Carrick-on-Shannon, that he could not congratulate the jury on the peaceable and orderly state of the county; to the remarks of Mr. Justice Madden, when opening the assizes for the County of Longford, when he stated that he had been supplied with official information showing that the crime of boycotting and cattle-driving existed in the county to an extent that led to the conclusion that its condition was other than satisfactory; and to the address of the Lord Chief Baron to the grand jury of County Clare, when he stated the number of outrages specially reported since March last, seventy-four of which were of an agrarian character, an increase of forty outrages as compared with the corresponding period of last year, that five persons were under constant police protection and sixty-five protected by patrol, an increase over those of last year, that there were thirty-two derelict evicted farms and forty-eight cattle-drives since last assizes; and will he say what steps the Government propose to take to restore law and order in the counties named.
§ MR. CHERRYI have seen a newspaper report of Mr. Justice Gibson's remarks to the effect mentioned in the Question. I am informed that in two of the cases of cattle-driving referred to in Westmeath offenders were arrested and bound to keep the peace. As regards the remarks attributed to the learned Judges at the three other Assizes mentioned I have nothing to add to the full Answers 81 which I gave yesterday to similar Questions put by the hon. Member for Mid Armagh. In each of the counties named full measures within the ordinary law are being taken for the preservation of the peace and the punishment of offenders.
CAPTAIN CRAIGDo the Government pay any attention whatever to the weighty words which fall from the Judges who have to try these cases? Will they not take some other measures to stamp out this horrible state of lawlessness?
§ MR. CHERRYThe Government pay every attention to the observations—weighty and other—of the learned Judges. They have taken every possible measure that comes within the ordinary law to stamp out lawlessness in Ireland.
§ MR. CULLINAN (Tipperary, S.)Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there are in Ireland many persons deliberately putting themselves in the way of acquiring patrol protection from the police merely in order to supply hon. Gentlemen above the gangway with ammunition for firing in this House?
CAPTAIN CRAIGMay I ask whether the Act which stands at present on the Statute-book for suppressing outrages of this kind is any part of the ordinary common law?
§ MR. CHERRYNo, Sir.