CAPTAIN CRAIGI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that on the night of 14th June, about 10.30, when a man named John Burke, of Rock-field, near Athenry, was entering his residence, several shots were fired at him, one of which hit him in the face, inflicting very serious injuries, and that being unable to get in by the front he turned to get in by the back door, when a second volley was fired at him; whether he is aware that the cause of the dispute which led to such serious consequences was Burke's purchase of a small plot of land on the Lambert Minors estate; what arrests have been made and sentences passed on the perpetrators of the outrages.
§ MR. BIRRELLI am informed that two gunshots were fired at John Burke on the occasion in question. He was not hit by the first shot, but at the second shot he was struck in the head and the upper part of his body by about thirty pellets of shot. The injuries were serious, but his life is not in danger. It is the fact that Burke had been allotted a farm on the estate of Lambert Minors, but whether this fact afforded a motive for the offence can only be a matter for conjecture. The police have so far been unable to discover the offenders.