HC Deb 26 October 1920 vol 133 cc1533-5
Mr. T. P. O'CONNOR (by Private Notice)

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland

  1. (1) if, having made inquiries, he is still without convincing evidence as to the flogging of several men in the West of Ireland, which has been described in full detail in responsible English and Irish journals;
  2. (2) whether his attention has been called to an allegation of similar torture in Portobello Barracks, Dublin, in which a prisoner is reported to have been tied to a plank bed and mercilessly beaten with rifle butts and buckle belts until his back was a mass of broken flesh;
  3. (3) whether the right hon. Gentleman has seen a photograph of this man published in a Dublin newspaper displaying marks of the horrible treatment to which he had been subjected;
  4. (4) whether he has now completed his inquiries into the allegation of incendiary fires and indiscriminate shootings in Dublin, Athlone, and Bandon, and what is the result?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

The inquiries into the allegations made of flogging of civilians in the West of Ireland are not yet complete, but I have received reports in two of the alleged cases. It was alleged that on the night of the 16th October two lorry loads of police surrounded a farm near Cordally, Co. Galway, and flogged three men, and that a man was also flogged at Corofin on the same night. The result of the inquiry in this case goes to show that the allegations made are a complete fabrication. No forces of the Crown were engaged in any attack on the people named on that night, and their families do not accuse the police and deny that they have ever authorised such accusations.

The second case, of which I have received a report, is the alleged flogging of a number of men at Varden's public house, Cumner, Co. Galway, on the 17th inst. The facts of that case are that a party of the Royal Irish Constabulary entered the house while conducting a search for an Irish Nationalist schoolmaster who was recently kidnapped, and had not yet been traced. The police interrogated a group of men who were drinking in the house, but they refused to give any information, and assumed a defiant and aggressive attitude. The police, who were well aware that these men were active members of the so-called Irish Republican Army, called upon them to disperse, and on meeting with a refusal used force. In the scuffle which ensued the police used their belts, and it is this action which has been misrepresented as the flogging of innocent people. I may mention that the same policemen had, earlier in the day, discovered a quantity of gelignite and dum-dum bullets in the neighbourhood.

With regard to the second part of the question I have seen the statement and photograph published in a Dublin newspaper regarding the alleged flogging of a man in Portobello Military Barracks. This matter has been fully investigated, and is found to be without any foundation whatever. There were no police in the barracks at the time, and the military authorities in charge of Portobello Barracks deny absolutely the truth of the story. Proper action is being taken against the paper that published the fabrication. The enquiries are not yet complete into the allegations referred to in the third part of the question.

In the case of Athlone three lorries of police, most of whom were young recruits, were ambushed between Kilbeggan and Moate, and the driver of the car was killed. On proceeding to Athlone after the ambush the lorries were again fired at near the entrance to the town. The police returned the fire until they got safely into barracks, and a civilian, Michael Burke, was accidentally shot and dangerously wounded by their fire. Burke was an absolutely innocent man, and I profoundly regret that he should have been accidentally wounded by the police in defending themselves. It is inevitable, under the conditions at present prevailing in Ireland, that the innocent sometimes suffer for the acts of the wrong-doer.

Mr. DEVLIN

Does the right hon. Gentleman assert that this photograph [holding up photograph published in an Irish newspaper] is a lie?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

I have said so.

Mr. DEVLIN

Does the right hon. Gentleman think that the representatives of the "Black and Tans" in this House would be believed in the statement made against a photograph which has been taken? I want to ask the Leader of the House whether he still persists in refusing a full, complete and searching inquiry into all these allegations, which have not been made by Irish newspapers, but by English Press correspondents who have seen these things for themselves?

Mr. BONAR LAW

Nothing whatever has happened to make me in the smallest degree change my mind. I would remind the hon. Member that such things have been known as faked photographs.