COUNTY CLARE (CONVICTION OF PATRICK ARKINS). (Hansard, 31 January 1913)

Mr. WILLIAM REDMOND

I desire to call attention to the conviction of Patrick Arkins, in regard to which there is widespread indignation in Ireland. This man was tried at the Winter Assizes in Cork and convicted of the offence of throwing down part of the wall of a farm about which there was a dispute. Unfortunately, there has been a good deal 1748 of disorder and violence in this part of the county of Clare which is greatly deplored by the people at large. The judge took the view that this prisoner Arkins should be held as what he called a "hostage" for the peace of the district, and he therefore sentenced him for this comparatively trivial crime to seven years' penal servitude. It was also suggested that if this man would give certain information, the sentence might be mitigated. It was felt the sentence was extremely severe, and that the action of the judge who decided to hold the prisoner as a hostage was entirely unjustifiable and unprecedented. The Chief Secretary knows very well comment is very often made in this House and elsewhere as to the alleged difficulty in securing verdicts in certain cases from juries in Ireland. I am sure everybody will agree, whatever difficulty there may be in securing verdicts, it cannot possibly be removed by the infliction of a sentence of seven years' penal servitude, because jurors will undoubtedly say to themselves, if men are liable for a comparatively trivial offence to receive sentences like that, it cannot be safe for them in all cases where they might wish to do so to convict. When this case was first brought to my attention, I caused a petition to be sent to the Lord Lieutenant. It was signed by a large number of British Members as well as by Irish Members. The Chief Secretary was good enough to say he would give the matter his careful attention, and I think he admitted from the outset the sentence as it stood was not one which could be allowed to continue. I now ask the Chief Secretary whether he has considered this matter in all its bearings, and I would appeal to him, under all the circumstances, to order the release of this boy. The shock of getting seven years' penal servitude is in itself a very severe punishment. The boy has been in prison already for a considerable time, and it was comparatively a trivial offence, although I do not attempt to minimise it in any way. I know the Chief Secretary may tell me this portion of the county of Clare has been the scene of some disturbance, unrest, and outrage. I greatly deplore that, and everybody must deplore it from every point of view. I am reminded every day of my life that certain portions, very limited portions, I am glad to say, of the county which I represent are the scene of disturbances and outrages of a greater or lesser degree. I can only say 1749 that from every point of view we deplore it. I have denounced that state of affairs, as the Chief Secretary knows. Everybody in the county, from the bishops downwards, have denounced it. Public opinion has denounced it. I can truly say, so far ad I am personally concerned, I have been always, all through my public life, opposed to anything in the shape of crime even at periods in Ireland when the condition of the people was so bad as almost to warrant anything. Ireland, of course, and the county of Clare as a whole, is in a most crimeless condition, and at this particular moment, when the fortunes of Ireland are so high and the hopes so great, everybody recognises that in addition to being bad in itself crime is also calculated greatly to injure the national interests of Ireland. I know that in asking for the release of this boy, and upsetting the sentence, I am asking for something which will tend to the good order of the district. I cannot pretend that a sentence of seven years' penal servitude, no matter what the state of the district may be, will have any effect in promoting good order. I believe that the judge who gave this sentence himself will, on consideration, come to the conclusion that it was a mistaken judgment. I ask the Chief Secretary to realise the situation, and to see that this boy is released. The causes which have led to rural disturbances in county Clare and in other parts of Ireland are rapidly passing away. Most of those disturbances were caused by the unfortunate agrarian conditions which prevailed. These are rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and I believe myself that the few remaining districts of Ireland where these deplorable disturbances continue will soon become as peaceful as the rest of the country. It is sincerely and truly in the interests of the Government that I ask the Chief Secretary, while not minimising any disturbance that has taken place, not to allow this sentence to continue.

§ The CHIEF SECRETARY for IRELAND (Mr. Birrell)

The learned judge who tried this case and passed sentence of seven years' penal servitude began his observations by saying that the case was one of great difficulty for the judge to decide, as the prisoner was probably one of the least guilty and there were others who were more guilty probably who were not brought to justice. The sentence of seven years' penal servitude passed upon what in Ireland is called a boy, but who 1750 is a young man of twenty-one, no doubt does call obviously for some criticism and justification. I am quite sure, from the observations of the learned judge, that he had no intention whatsoever that the sentence in its integrity should ever be carried out. But he thought the circumstances of the case were such that it required a sentence of an unusual character in itself. The offence with which the young man was charged was the pulling down of walls. I think it is only fair to the learned judge to state that this case was not an isolated one; it was part of a series of cases which, taken as a whole, could only be described as very cruel persecution, and those facts ought obviously to be made known. I have had the facts of the case before me. Ever since 1908 this unfortunate woman-occupant of a farm, perfectly honestly acquired by her deceased husband, had in consequence of the hostility of her neighbours been subjected to persecution. For example, I find that ever since 1908 this persecution had been almost continuous. In August, 1908, this woman received a threatening letter; in 1909 shots were fired from the hill opposite into her house; in October, 1910, shots were again fired from a distance of 200 yards; in February, 1911, the house was again fired into. In the following March notices were posted threatening anyone who worked for her; in July, 1911, notices were again posted; in June, 1912, the roof of a new barn was absolutely riddled with bullets and her cattle were driven off the land. The judge who had to deliver and execute justice naturally felt that the case was one requiring a special kind of treatment. What the hon. Member has said is quite true. It is indeed a gratifying circumstance that although a considerable number of cases were tried at the assizes from this neighbourhood, convictions were in almost every instance obtained; in fact, it is not too much to say that convictions were obtained in every case in which they could fairly and properly have been obtained. I regard that as a circumstance which is, at all events, a gleam of light thrown across a dark place—the only dark place now remaining throughout the length and breadth of Ireland. The learned judge thought that a severe sentence of this kind, which, as was obvious from the remarks he made to the prisoner, he never intended should be carried out, was the best way of dealing with it, because in his observations he said that he had no doubt whatever that if the people in the neighbourhood showed a better sense of what 1751 was right and proper, that the Lord Lieutenant would exercise his prerogative of mercy, and would be able to release the prisoner.

I must say, from the point of view of the Executive, that I find it a little inconvenient for a judge, as it were, at the very moment he is passing sentence, to invoke the aid of the prerogative of mercy. I had sooner they dealt with the case on their own responsibility, and passed a sentence which they thought the gravity of the case required—and this was, as I have already indicated, in connection with other events a very grave case—I would sooner they exercised their own judgment in the matter rather than invoke the prerogative of mercy at the very beginning. However, he took that course, and this young man is now a convict, and, of course, a convict he must remain until the expiration of his sentence. Therefore in considering how long he should be kept in prison I do take very much into consideration the fact that when he is let out it will only be on what is called ticket-of-leave, that is, subject to very strict supervision, and also to conditions which at any moment, if they are disregarded, can be enforced against him. I have regard, therefore, to the fact that he is a convict, that he can only so remain for the rest of this long sentence that has been passed upon him, and that it is obvious that it never was intended that he should, as it were, serve for the full time, that this is the first time any conviction has ever been obtained against him or that he has ever got into trouble, and that I do feel that we can rely that this sentence will be some indication of the general abhorrence that is felt of prolonged persecution of this kind directed against a harmless individual. I see that his sentence takes effect as from 3rd December. I therefore think that after he has remained in prison for a period of three months from that time I shall not have any difficulty in recommending that the Lord Lieutenant, exercising the Royal Prerogative, should let him out; and I think he has received a lesson in the fact that he will be for a long series of years yet to come under the supervision of the police, and, as it were, only let out on his good behaviour. I therefore hope very much that in this most charming part of the world to visit, in which unfortunately habits have grown up and have been in existence I am afraid, I was 1752 going to say for centuries, the people of that neighbourhood will discover that this kind of thing, although it grew up in bad times, is altogether obsolete, and must disappear with the elevation of the Irish agricultural population in all parts of Ireland. I do not want anything that I say to reflect upon the judge, whose charge, if I read it to the House, would make perfectly manifest what his motive was. He did use the expression that this young man should be held as a hostage, an expression which it is difficult to justify in cold blood, but the object which he had in view will, I hope, have been served by the fact that, although the actual imprisonment of this young man will now soon come to an end, still he remains under the ban of the law, and will be subject to close examination and criticism of his conduct in the past. He is quite a young man, who has hitherto borne a spotless character, and I hope, like many of us, he will learn by experience.