HC Deb 18 August 1909 vol 9 cc1380-1
Mr. JEREMIAH MacVEAGH

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the disorder in Portadown has been repressed; whether he can say if disturbance has taken place in Lurgan also; whether he can say whether the extra police will be retained in both towns until the disturbances end; whether he will make inquiries from Mr. J. Grew, J.P., hotel proprietor in Portadown as to the allegation that a bottle was thrown from the hotel windows?

The CHIEF SECRETARY for IRELAND (Mr. Birrell)

The disorder in Portadown on Sunday night was repressed, but there is still cause for anxiety. Disturbances took place in Lurgan on Monday night. Whatever extra police may be required in these towns will be employed there until the disturbances cease. Inquiries will be made from Mr. Grew, J.P., and from others as to the allegation that a bottle was thrown from the hotel windows. The reports which I have received this morning from the police state that all is quiet in both towns.

Mr. J. MacVEAGH

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether it is not a fact that no such scenes of rowdyism as have taken place in Lurgan and Portadown have been witnessed in the south and west of Ireland for more than half a century?

Mr. BIRRELL

I do not wish to enter into comparisons, but these disturbances are as lamentable as they are absurd, and they are insensate. I deeply regret their occurrence, all the more because the people were not content with breaking their own heads, but gouged out the eye of one policeman and fractured the jaw of another.

Mr. T. L. CORBETT

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether there would have been any room for anxiety if the Nationalist party had conducted themselves properly?

Mr. BIRRELL

Whether the Nationalists conducted themselves properly in insisting on going on an excursion on a Sunday I cannot say. The police say that they went without any signs or symbols of agitation, without any bands, or what I believe is sometimes called regalia. They went under the protection of the police, and if they had been left alone nothing would have happened.

Mr. JEREMIAH MacVEAGH

As a wilfully misleading account of the Lurgan disturbance has been circulated by a Press agency in this country, I must ask the Chief Secretary whether he can give to the House the text of the police report which he has received as to the beginning of these disturbances?

Mr. BIRRELL

I do not think that any useful purpose would now be gained by reading the reports from the police which I have received. I can only hope that these miserable occurrences will not take place again.

Mr. JEREMIAH MacVEAGH

Might I ask the Chief Secretary whether he does not think that the absolutely and deliberately false account which has been circulated by this Press agency ought to be officially contradicted at once; and, as he has the official police reports, what objection is there to letting us know the police account when we had the police account yesterday about the disturbance in Portadown?

Mr. BIRRELL

I have no objection whatever to publishing it.