sentences:  Blane was sentenced under the Irish Coercion Act to four months imprisonment, increased on appeal in April 1888 to six months.The Chief Secretary for Ireland, Arthur Balfour, was challenged in the House of Commons when he said that the sentence had been reduced.He responded ‘The original sentence, I believe, was four months with hard labour, and the new sentence was 6 months, without hard labour, I believe, and I say that is not an increase of the sentence, but it is a matter of taste’.