Before the Special Commission, the main interest of the week
has been the examination and cross-examination of Mr.
John O'Connor, M.P. for South Tipperary, who admitted that he began his political career as a Fenian, and that he joined the Land League after certain interviews with Mr. Devoy, the nature of which he declined to state to the Special Com- mission, on the ground that his conception of honour would not admit of his divulging it, though he stated that Mr. Devoy had done his very best to detach him from the Land League. Mr. O'Connor refused to answer so many questions put to him as to his relations with Mr. Devoy, that the President had to point out to him that his having sworn secrecy as to the doings of an illegal Association was no justification for refusing to answer questions which were put to him before this Court, and that his silence, and the silence of other witnesses, must have "an unfortunate influence" on the judgment which the Court would form of the drift of what was kept back. Subsequently, when Mr. O'Connor admitted that he had charged Government officials both in Kerry and at the Castle with full knowledge that they were hanging innocent men for a murder they had not committed, and that he had brought this most grave charge on the strength of mere popular rumour, Sir James Hannen expressed in the most impressive way the horror with which such charges, made on no evidence worthy of the name, inspired him. Mr. John O'Connor, however, seems to have borne the indignant rebuke "with a light heart."
