MILITARISM IN IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 15 March 1917, Page 15

MILITARISM IN IRELAND

A sensational sequel has occurred to the recent prosecution under the Defence of the Realm Act at Limerick, when Mr. James Ryan, secretary to the Limerick County Board, G.A.A., was charged with refusing police admission to a hurling match in County Limerick without payment. It will be remembered that Mr. Ryan was tried before a bench of magistrates at Pallas, County Limerick, on December 12, and the case was dismissed on the merits. During the hearing of the case documents were read and.handed in by Mr. H. O'B. Moran, solicitor for the defence. Later Mr. Moran and Mr. Ryan were summoned to Dublin to appear before General Sir Bryan Mahon, Commander of the Forces in Ireland, with a view ,to ascertaining from them where they got these documents. This information Mr. Moran and Mr. Ryan refused to give, with the result that they were placed under 1 military escort and conveyed to Arbour Hill Barracks, where they have been detained. Feeling in Legal Circles. A most important question affecting the solicitor profession and the public has been raised by the action of the military authorities in making this demand of Mr. Moran and in placing him in custody on his refusal to comply with it. Mr. Moran has indignantly repudiated the right of the military authorities to act as they have done, and he claims the privilege of his profession as justifying his own attitude. It is pointed out that any yielding by a solicitor on a question of this kind would be calculated to destroy the confidence of clients in the secrecy which it is understood attaches to communications made to a professional adviser ; and it is further pointed out that action such as that which has been taken in Mr. Moran's case is calculated to seriously interfere with legal defence of persons who may be charged with offences under the Defence of the Realm Act. - '' The subject, it is expected, will come up for consideration at the next meeting of the Incorporated Law Society. It is taken for granted, too, that Mr. Moran will be formally charged before some tribunal, whether civil or military, with having committed an offence under the Defence of the Realm Act because of his attitude in the matter. Precedent in Parnell's Time. It is interesting to recall that a number of Irish solicitors were subpoenaed to appear before the Parnell Commission and invited to give information as to who their clients were, who paid them and where they got certain information. They all declined to do so, and no attempt was made by the judges constituting the Commission to compel them. It appears that there was a special section in the Act of Parliament under which the Commission was appointed giving solicitors permission to give the information indicated ' if they so desired.'