§ Mr. S. WALSHasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he can state how many cases of coroners' inquests upon the deaths of civilians in Ireland in the years 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920, respectively, were verdicts of murder, 2114W homicide or unjustifiable killing, returned against the military and police, respectively, or against individual members of either class; and in how many cases were prosecutions instituted and with what result?
§ Sir H. GREENWOODThe number of such verdicts recorded against the police individually or collectively were as follow:—
For the year 1916 Nil For the year 1917 1 For the year 1918 Nil For the year 1919 2 For the year 1920 10 A prosecution was instituted in one of these, cases, and the accused was found guilty of wife murder, but insane. With two exceptions, in which the men are at present awaiting trial, no prosecutions have been instituted in the remaining cases, for the reason that the verdicts were clearly and notoriously the outcome of political motive and not buna fide finding, in accordance with the evidence. The verdicts against the military were: For the year 1916, 2; for the year 1917, nil; for the year 1918, nil; for the year 1919, 4; and for the year 1920, 16. Three verdicts against the military and police combined were recorded in the year 1920 for the reason above-mentioned; no prosecutions have been instituted in any of these cases.