HC Deb 25 November 1920 vol 135 cc652-3W
Mr. SEXTON

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that a lad of 14 years, John W. Scott, 15, Fitz-roy Avenue, Dublin, was bayonetted by forces of the Crown in Croke Park, Dublin, on Sunday; whether he suffered great agony and died within an hour; whether military subsequently removed the body from the house in which the child had died and left it lying on the roadway; whether he can offer any explanation as to the murder by bayonetting of this child; whether another 10-year-old child, Jeremiah O'Leary, was shot dead; whether Miss Jane Boyle was shot dead on the same occasion; and whether the persons who caused their deaths have been arrested?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

The statement that a child was bayonetted at Croke Park on Sunday is entirely untrue. I regret to state that a woman named Miss Jane Boyle and a child named Jeremiah O'Leary were among the persons who were killed, but, as I have already explained to the House, the firing by the Crown forces was fully justified in the exceptional circumstances of the situation on Sunday last.