I asked the Minister for Justice to-day if it is the intention of the Government, that is to say of the Attorney-General, to institute proceedings against six members of the Gárda Síochána who fired on a small body, some 20 men, in Marsh's yard in the City of Cork, killing one of the men upon whom they fired and wounding six. The answer I received from the Minister was that it is not the intention of the Government to prosecute these men. In reply to a supplementary question the Minister went on to say that there was a verdict of a coroner's jury which acquitted these men. The Minister has been very strangely misinformed indeed. There has been no verdict of a coroner's jury exculpating these men in the least degree. The law is perfectly clear. When one individual takes the life of another individual and it is proved that he has taken that life, the onus or burden of proof is on the person who has taken the life to produce evidence of some circumstance which will reduce it from murder to any lesser offence, or to show that it is not an offence at all. The burden is upon the person who has taken the life. That is well established law. It has been laid down in the Court of Criminal Appeal in this country.
Therefore, the verdict of the jury which did not exculpate these men, a verdict of a jury who simply satisfied themselves, acting indeed on a suggestion of the coroner, in bringing in a verdict that Michael Patrick Lynch died of gunshot wounds, was equivalent to a verdict of wilful murder against these men. The law presumes it is murder. There is no question as to who fired these shots. They admitted it themselves on oath. There is no question as to the individuals who fired the volley, or series of volleys. They admitted it themselves on their oaths. In consequence the verdict of the jury in Cork was not a verdict acquitting these men; it was a verdict equivalent to a verdict of murder against them. These men could not have been acquitted. No jury could have found a verdict exculpating these men, and, in the short time at my disposal, when I place the facts before the House, it will be clear to every member of the House, who brings to a consideration of this case anything approaching an impartial mind, that the Attorney-General is condoning wilful murder in this case and that the Attorney-General is, by his refusal to prosecute, making himself, as it were, an accessory after the fact to a calculated and cold-blooded murder.
What are the facts? On this 13th of August there were 330 uniformed Guards in the City of Cork. That body of uniformed Guards was quite sufficient and ample to deal, without the use of firearms, with any activities of the crowd. There was a crowd, which they estimated at something between 2,000 and 3,000 men, present on that 13th of August. On the previous 27th July, in the very same place, there had been, on the police evidence, an equally large crowd and there had been only 50 police on that occasion, and yet they were able to preserve the peace and to control the crowd without the use of firearms. What happened on this occasion? There were several cordons of Guards drawn up outside the gates of Marsh's yard where certain cattle were being sold. A lorry load of men, roughly about 15 men in a lorry, darted at the gate and carried the gate of the yard off the under rail on which it rested. The lorry then went into the yard, a distance of some seven yards—22 feet to be completely accurate—and struck against a cattle pen and came to a complete stop. The gate itself, as I have said, was taken off the bottom rail but was still held up by the top rail hanging over the back of the lorry. There was an attempt made by some members of the crowd to get in after the lorry. Five members of the crowd did get in after the lorry and amongst these five was the unfortunate boy, Lynch.
What was the position inside the yard? There were 15 men on the lorry inside the yard and there were five others, not even in the lorry, who followed them—20 men in all. There were inside Marsh's yard at that time 46 members of the Gárda. The proposition which the Minister for Justice endeavoured to establish at question time to-day was that 46 members of the Gárda could not deal with 20 civilians, bearing no lethal weapons, without opening revolver and rifle fire on them. That is a monstrous proposition.
