§ Mr. NEWMANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he is aware that Richard J. Walsh, who has been appointed as the secretary of the Castleisland Parish Committee, under the Congested Districts Board for Ireland, was one of the fifteen men who were brought before the magistrates at Castleisland Petty Sessions charged with unlawful assembly, riot, and assaults on and resistance to the police and the sheriff, a part of which consisted in flinging boiling tar and lime into their eyes when executing a writ from the High Court of Justice in Ireland; is he aware that Richard J. Walsh declined to pay his rates, and that when the rate collector seized his corn for unpaid rates it was removed by force, and nothing recovered; and, seeing that Richard J. Walsh was also fined on 30th December last for being drunk, will he say if this appointment has been sanctioned by the Congested Districts Board?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe facts are substantially as stated. Mr. R. J. Walsh was appointed secretary (without remunera-2002W tion) by the Castleisland Parish Committee, and the appointment was sanctioned by the Congested Districts Board on 14th June, 1911. The facts mentioned in the question were not before the Board at the time. The appointment is an annual one, and the question of Walsh's reappointment will come before the Board at their next meeting.