asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether, following on the murder of 15 auxiliary police in an ambush near Macroom on 28th November last, many houses and shops in the vicinity were burned or damaged as a so-called reprisal; whether the owners or occupiers, irrespective of age or sex, are supposed to have taken part in the ambush or to have been accessories to the crime; and, if so, why they were not arrested and brought to trial?

I am informed that the only houses which have been burned in or near Macroom are those overlooking the scene of the massacre in which the murderers had lain concealed in preparation for the ambush in which 16 officers were killed. The occupiers of these houses had fled when the police came to arrest them for their complicity in the crime, and the houses were burned as a precautionary measure against similar attacks, and not as a reprisal.

Are we to understand that in future, if one of these terrible outrages occurs, all the houses overlooking the scene of the outrage are to be burned irrespective of ownership, sex, age or any other condition of the occupier?

No, but these particular houses were occupied by the men who committed the murder.

Are the wives and families of these men supposed to be accessories to the crime? Why punish the families and not the men themselves? [An HON. MEMBER: "Because they ran away."]

Is this burning done under civil or military law?

Are these questions put down with the object of condoning and encouraging crime?

It is to get the truth, and we cannot get it.

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether, on the night of the 29th-30th November last, forces of the Crown raided the town of Ardee, county Louth; whether they arrested Patrick Tierney and John O'Carroll; whether the two men were later found dead from gunshot wounds; and what is his explanation for these deaths?

A party of police were sent to Ardee from Drogheda on the night of the 29th ultimo in view of an apprehended attack on the Ardee police barrack. The party while in Ardee did not leave the vicinity of the police barrack, and it is not correct to state that the town was raided. Tierney and O'Carroll were not arrested, and the police have been unable to obtain any information as to the identity of the persons by whom they were murdered. The finding of the military court of inquiry was that their deaths were caused by bullet wounds inflicted by some person or persons unknown.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the relatives of these men declare positively that they were taken into custody by armed servants of the Crown, and when men are taken into custody by armed servants of the Crown, why are they not safeguarded from gunshot wounds?

The servants of the Crown deny that absolutely.

Of course they do.