§ 43. Mr. MULDOONasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the fact that five young men from the Kinsale district, county Cork, namely, Patrick Donohoe, Con Donohoe, Dan Donohoe, John Hales, and Edward Barrett, were placed under arrest after the rising in Dublin; whether there was no charge put forward against them other than being members of a branch of the Sinn Fein body; whether he is aware that the Donohoe boys are three brothers, the sons of a widow, and are her only help in working an extensive farm of land, and that this help will be indispensable at the forthcoming harvest; and whether, under all 2254 the circumstances and to ease the feeling in the district, where there was no trouble in April last, he will consent to set the prisoners at liberty?
§ Mr. BRACEThese five men had full opportunities of making representations on their own behalf to the Advisory Committee, who have recommended that they should be retained in detention. The ground for their internment is that they are of hostile associations and members of an organisation called the Irish Volunteers or of an organisation called the Citizen Army, which have promoted armed insurrection against His Majesty, and are reasonably suspected of having favoured, promoted, or assisted in armed insurrection against His Majesty. My right hon. Friend regrets that he cannot reopen any of these cases at the present time.