§ Mr. FIELDasked the Solicitor-General for Ireland whether he is aware that in a recent case in Wicklow county, near Bray, two members of the constabulary in plain clothes demanded to see a licence from a man who was carrying a gun; whether, on his refusal to do so unless they showed him their legal authority, he was brought to barracks and subsequently fined, notwithstanding that he had produced his licence; whether this is the usual procedure; and whether he will arrange that when mem- 537W bers of the constabulary ask for a licence to be shown they will disclose their authority to do so?
§ Mr. REDMOND BARRYOn the occasion in question an acting-sergeant and constable of the Royal Irish Constabulary, who had been specially sent out to detect breaches of the Gun Licence Act, met a stranger carrying a gun who refused either to produce his licence or to give his name and address, as required by the Act, though informed by the police of their rank. He was arrested and brought to the barracks, and was subsequently brought before a special Petty Sessions Court charged with the offence of refusing to give his name and address while carrying a gun for which he refused to produce a licence, and was fined £10, mitigated, as provided by the Act, to £2 10s., which he paid.