HC Deb 20 July 1914 vol 65 cc55-6W
Mr. STAVELEY-HILL

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether the attention of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland has been directed to the election address issued by Mr. Maurice Prendiville, of Castleisland, county Kerry, to the electors of the Scartaglin county council division of the Kerry County Council, for the election of the 28th May last, and to the statement contained therein that his brother, Mr. Simon Prendiville, the justice of the peace for the county of Kerry, had deliberately and purposely refused to do his duty in order to prevent fifteen men who were charged at Castleisland Petty Sessions with unlawful assembly, riot, and assaults on and resistance to the police, the sheriff, and his bailiffs, a part of which consisted in flinging boiling tar and lime into their eyes when executing at Kilmurry, near Castleisland, a writ of possession from His Majesty's High Court of Justice in Ireland, from being returned for trial; whether pressure had been brought by the whole of Dublin Castle to return these men for trial; and what action the Lord Chancellor of Ireland proposes to take in the matter?

Mr. BIRRELL

The Lord Chancellor has no official knowledge of this matter, but in June last Mr. P. Gun Mahony forwarded to him what purported to be a copy of the election address of a Mr. Maurice Prendiville, which contained a reference to a case in which his (Mr. Prendiville's) brother had acted as a magistrate five years previously. The Lord Chancellor attaches no importance to any statement in Mr. Maurice Prendiville's election address, and does not propose to take any action in respect of the matter.