HC Deb 25 November 1920 vol 135 cc621-2
22. Mr. MOSLEY

asked whether Mrs. Eileen Quinn, of Kiltartan, County Galway, was killed by a shot fired from a passing police lorry on 1st November, 1920, while sitting on a wall in broad daylight with a child in her arms; whether he will state the distance between this wall and the road from which the shot was fired; whether the position of Mrs. Quinn at the time she was shot was in full view of the road; whether the police occupying the lorry in question were called as witnesses at the court of inquiry; how many rounds of ammunition were fired by the occupants of this lorry in the course of their journey; and how far away was the nearest point at which murders of soldiers or policemen had occurred to the scene of Mrs. Quinn's death?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

A military court of inquiry was held into this deplorable affair and found that the cause of death was misadventure. I am not prepared to reopen the inquiry by entering into a discussion of points of evidence all of which were fully considered by the court.

Mr. MOSLEY

Is it a fact that a doctor who examined Mrs. Quinn after her death gave it as his opinion that she was shot at close range, and was his evidence produced before the court of inquiry?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

I cannot speak offhand, but certainly the doctor who attended Mrs. Quinn must have been called.

Major MACKENZIE WOOD

Was there there any legal member of this court?

Mr. KELLY

Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether this was one of the cases in which the legal representatives of the next-of-kin were refused leave to attend the inquiry?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

I must have notice of that.

Mr. KELLY

It is the general rule in Ireland.