HC Deb 05 November 1908 vol 195 cc1409-11
MR. O'DOWD

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that, owing to the firing of a party of police on an unarmed crowd assembled at Riverstown, county Sligo, on Thursday morning, 29th October, a young man named John Stenson lost his life by a rifle bullet; and, if so, what steps will be taken to have the perpetrator discovered.

MR. LONSDALE (Armagh, Mid)

At the same time, may I ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will give the House full particulars of the fatal conflict between cattle-drivers and the police at Riverstown, county Sligo, on the 29th instant.

MR. BIRRELL

On the occasion in question, shortly after midnight, a force of ton police under a head constable, was on certain lands from which the cattle had twice been driven. A body of over 100 men entered the field and approached the cattle. They refused to retire when called on to do so, and attacked the police with stones. The head constable in charge of the party was struck on the head with a stone and knocked down, and other constables were also injured. A shot was fired from the crowd, and the police were driven back by volleys of stones. The crowd rapidly closed on the police, and the head constable, believing the lives of his men to be in imminent danger, ordered them to fire. The crowd repeatedly fired at the police with revolvers, and did not retire until the police had fired a second and third time. The dead body of a young man named John Stenson was subsequently found in the field with a bullet wound in the head. These facts speak for themselves. An inquest has been held, and it is not intended to hold any further inquiry.

MR. LONSDALE

asked whether, having regard to the fatal consequences of a reliance on the ordinary law, the right hon. Gentleman now intended to use the Criminal Law (Procedure) Act.

MR. BIRRELL

That is not my intention.

MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN (Kilkenny)

Were any police officers wounded by the use of revolvers?

MR. BIRRELL

No, not by the use of revolvers, but by stones very badly.

MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN

Does not that show there was no intention to wound? They must have been bad marksmen not to hit one of eleven policemen in a field.

MR. LONSDALE

Is it fair to the police to withhold an inquiry?

*MR. SPEAKEE

That is a matter of opinion.

MR. JOHN REDMOND (Waterford)

What evidence has the right hon. Gentleman that any firearms were used by the people? Has the right hon. Gentleman not received information to the contrary effect?

MR. BIRRELL

I have to deal with a small force of policemen, eleven men in all, who appeared to have behaved with great discretion and to have been completely under command. They only fired at the command of their officer, and they tell me, without any hesitation or doubt, that the firing proceded from the crowd at first. I cannot doubt that they are correct in that view, and I cannot see how you could obtain evidence of such a kind as to affect the merit and force of their evidence.

MR. LONSDALE

Can the right hon. Gentleman say how many lives are required to be sacrificed?

*MR. SPEAKER

The hon. Member has been in the House long enough to know that Questions of that sort are not permissible.