§ Mr. MILLSasked the Chief Secretary if his attention has been called to a signed statement of Lieut.-Colonel Napier, the Officer Commanding Kilkenny, denying the report issued from Dublin Castle to the Press which stated that, while walking in the direction of Thomastown on the afternoon of the 5th instant, Private A. Yorke, 2nd Green Howards, who was unarmed, was held up by three armed masked men, who fired at him, seriously 1377W wounding him in the left leg and right hand; and whether, as the denial comes from a responsible officer in Kilkenny, he proposes to take any action?
§ Mr. HENRYThe hon. Member is under a total misapprehension. The official report correctly described an incident which took place at Thomastown, County Tipperary, and in which an unarmed soldier was waylaid and savagely mutilated by masked rebels with the expressed object of rendering him permanently incapable of using a rifle. The communication addressed to the local Press by the Officer Commanding, Kilkenny, was merely for the purpose of correcting an incorrect report which described this atrocious outrage as having taken place in Thomastown, County Kilkenny. I am glad to say that the newspaper imputation upon which the hon. Member presumably based his question was subsequently withdrawn with an expression of regret.