§ MR. O'DOWD (Sligo, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, on the night of the 3rd July instant, the sergeant in charge of the Royal Irish Constabulary, in Riverstown, County Sligo, entered the yard rented by the local band committee and ordered a baton charge; and, if so, will he state under what law police are empowered to enter the private rented premises of any band committee.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe police authorities inform me that it is not the fact that the sergeant or any of the police entered the premises of the band committee at Riverstown on the occasion in question. It was necessary that the police, in the discharge of their duty, should keep the band and its followers under observation because of their intimidatory conduct towards the owners of grazing farms whose cattle had been driven. The crowd assumed a threatening attitude 1100 towards the sergeant, who ordered the police to draw batons, but there was no necessity to use them as the crowd thereupon withdrew quietly. The incident occurred upon the public road.