Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973

Last updated

Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973
Act of Parliament
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (Variant 1, 2022).svg
Long title An Act to make provision with respect to the following matters in Northern Ireland, that is to say, proceedings for and the punishment of certain offences, the detention of terrorists, the preservation of the peace, the maintenance of order and the detection of crime and to proscribe and make other provision in connection with certain organisations there, and for connected purposes.
Citation 1973 c. 53
Introduced by William Whitelaw
Territorial extent Northern Ireland
Dates
Royal assent 25 July 1973
Commencement 8 August 1973
Other legislation
Amended byNorthern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) (Amendment) Act 1975, Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1978, Criminal Justice (Children) (Northern Ireland) Order 1998, Life Sentences (Northern Ireland) Order 2001, Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.
Relates to Defence of the Realm Act 1914; Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920; Emergency Powers Act 1920; Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939; Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965; Civil Contingencies Act 2004
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973 (c. 53) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which abolished the death penalty for murder in Northern Ireland, and established the Diplock courts in which terrorist offences were tried by a judge without a jury. [1] It has mostly been repealed, the anti-terrorism provisions having been superseded by subsequent legislation. The death penalty had not been used in Northern Ireland since 1961, when Robert McGladdery was hanged. [2]

The act banned membership under penalty of law in the following organisations:

The subsequent Elected Authorities (Northern Ireland) Act 1989 would require oaths renouncing these organisations (except Sinn Féin). [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fianna Éireann</span> Irish nationalist youth organisation

Na Fianna Éireann, known as the Fianna, is an Irish nationalist youth organisation founded by Constance Markievicz in 1909, with later help from Bulmer Hobson. Fianna members were involved in setting up the Irish Volunteers, and had their own circle of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). They took part in the 1914 Howth gun-running and in the 1916 Easter Rising. They were active in the War of Independence and many took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War.

Cumann na nGaedheal was a political party in the Irish Free State, which formed the government from 1923 to 1932. It was named after the original Cumann na nGaedheal organisation which merged with the Dungannon Clubs and the National Council to form Sinn Féin in 1905. In 1933 it merged with smaller groups to form the Fine Gael party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Boland</span> Irish politician (1885–1973)

Gerald Boland was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Minister for Justice from 1939 to 1948 and 1951 to 1954, Minister for Lands from 1936 to 1939, Minister for Posts and Telegraphs from 1933 to 1936 and Government Chief Whip from 1932 to 1933. He served as a Senator from 1961 to 1969 and a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Roscommon constituency from 1923 to 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish Parliamentary Party</span> Irish political party at Westminster, 1874–1922

The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1874 by Isaac Butt, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament (MPs) elected to the House of Commons at Westminster within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland up until 1918. Its central objectives were legislative independence for Ireland and land reform. Its constitutional movement was instrumental in laying the groundwork for Irish self-government through three Irish Home Rule bills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">June 1927 Irish general election</span> Election to the 5th Dáil

The June 1927 Irish general election was to elect the 5th Dáil held on Thursday, 9 June following the dissolution of the 4th Dáil on 23 May 1927. It was the first election contested by Fianna Fáil, which had been formed a year earlier when Éamon de Valera, leader of the abstentionist Anti-Treaty Sinn Féin, failed to convince the party to take their seats if and when the Oath of Allegiance were abolished. Most of Sinn Féin's TDs, as well as the bulk of its support, shifted to Fianna Fáil. The impact of this shift saw Sinn Féin all but decimated; it was reduced to five seats. This was for many years the end of the party as a major force in the southern part of the island; it would not win more than 10 seats at an election until 2011, by which time it had undergone fundamental transformation. This election cemented Fianna Fáil as a major party; it and Cumann na nGaedheal/Fine Gael remained the two largest parties in Ireland until 2020 when Sinn Féin came first in first preference votes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Republican Sinn Féin</span> Irish republican political party split from Sinn Féin in 1986

Republican Sinn Féin or RSF is an Irish republican political party in Ireland. RSF claims to be heirs of the Sinn Féin party founded in 1905; the party took its present form in 1986 following a split in Sinn Féin. RSF members take seats when elected to local government in the Republic of Ireland, but do not recognise the validity of the Partition of Ireland. It subsequently does not recognise the legitimacy of the parliaments of Northern Ireland (Stormont) or the Republic of Ireland, so the party does not register itself with them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Ireland</span> Proposition that all of Ireland should be a single state

United Ireland, also referred to as Irish reunification or a New Ireland, is the proposition that all of the island of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically: the sovereign state of Ireland has jurisdiction over the majority of Ireland, while Northern Ireland, which lies entirely within the Irish province of Ulster, is part of the United Kingdom. Achieving a united Ireland is a central tenet of Irish nationalism and Republicanism, particularly of both mainstream and dissident republican political and paramilitary organisations. Unionists support Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom and oppose Irish unification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moss Twomey</span> Irish republican (1897–1978)

Maurice Twomey was an Irish republican and the longest serving chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)</span> Anti-Treaty sub-group of the original IRA

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) of 1922–1969 was a sub-group of the original pre-1922 Irish Republican Army, characterised by its opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It existed in various forms until 1969, when the IRA split again into the Provisional IRA and Official IRA.

James Anthony Lane is an Irish republican and socialist from Cork. He was a central figure in left-wing politics in Cork city during the 1960s to late 1980s and involved in many campaigns. He was also influential in republican circles nationally and a well known advocate of socialist republicanism of a Marxist-Leninist hue.

Cumann na mBan, abbreviated C na mB, is an Irish republican women's paramilitary organisation formed in Dublin on 2 April 1914, merging with and dissolving Inghinidhe na hÉireann, and in 1916, it became an auxiliary of the Irish Volunteers. Although it was otherwise an independent organisation, its executive was subordinate to that of the Irish Volunteers, and later, the Irish Republican Army.

Sinn Féin is the name of an Irish political party founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith. It became a focus for various forms of Irish nationalism, especially Irish republicanism. After the Easter Rising in 1916, it grew in membership, with a reorganisation at its Ard Fheis in 1917. It split in 1922 in response to the Anglo-Irish Treaty which led to the Irish Civil War and saw the origins of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the two parties which have since dominated Irish politics. Another split in the remaining Sinn Féin organisation in the early years of the Troubles in 1970 led to the Sinn Féin of today, which is a republican, left-wing nationalist and secular party.

Éire Nua, or "New Ireland", was a proposal supported by the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin during the 1970s and early 1980s for a federal United Ireland. The proposal was particularly associated with the Dublin-based leadership group centred on Ruairí Ó Brádaigh and Dáithí Ó Conaill, who were the authors of the policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seán McGuinness</span> Irish politician (died 1978)

Seán McGuinness, born John McGuinness, was an Irish republican who fought in the Irish War of Independence as well as the Irish Civil War. After the wars, he was elected to Dáil Éireann but did not take his seat and was later disqualified for allegedly assaulting a member of the Garda Siochana. Following a period of exile in the United States, McGuinness returned to Ireland where he resumed his membership of the IRA and continued to push for radical action as well as becoming a founder of the Saor Éire party. Over the years, McGuinness repeatedly clashed with the leadership of the IRA over the direction they should take in the post-Civil War era, with McGuinness being amongst those in the IRA who believed the organisation needed to be tied to social issues in order to receive public support.

Liam Seán Kelly was an Irish republican, who was elected both to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland (1953–1958) and as a member of the upper house of the Irish legislature Seanad Éireann (1954–1957). He was also a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and after his expulsion from that organisation in 1951, founded the Republican splinter group Saor Uladh and its political wing Fianna Uladh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Milne</span> Irish Republican politician

Ian Milne is an Irish republican politician from Northern Ireland.

The Constitution Act 1931, popularly called the Public Safety Act 1931, was an Act of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State amending the Constitution of the Irish Free State. It inserted Article 2A which empowered the Executive Council to declare a state of emergency during which most provisions of the constitution could be suspended and extra security measures taken. These measures included the uses of the Constitution Tribunal, a military tribunal, to try civilians for political offences, granting extra powers of search and arrest to the Garda Síochána (police), and the prohibition of organisations deemed a threat to the state's security.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elected Authorities (Northern Ireland) Act 1989</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Elected Authorities Act 1989 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It brought in a law that required candidates standing for election in Northern Irish local and Northern Ireland Assembly elections to declare they would not, by word or deed, express support for or approval of proscribed organisations or acts of terrorism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022</span> Legislation in Northern Ireland

The Identity and Language Act 2022 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom providing "official recognition of the status of the Irish language" in Northern Ireland, with Ulster Scots being an officially recognised minority language.

References

  1. "Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, 25 July 1973, 1973 c. 53, retrieved 6 October 2024
  2. "Last man hanged in Ireland 50 years ago". Belfast Media Group. 5 December 2011. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973: Schedule 2", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, 25 July 1973, 1973 c. 53 (sch.2), retrieved 6 October 2024, SCHEDULE 2 Proscribed Organisations The Irish Republican Army. Cumann na m'Ban. Fianna na h'Eireann. Saor Eire. Sinn Fein. The Ulster Volunteer Force.
  4. "Elected Authorities (Northern Ireland) Act 1989", legislation.gov.uk , The National Archives, 15 March 1989, 1989 c. 3, retrieved 6 October 2024