Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Act 1848

Last updated

Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Act 1848
Act of Parliament
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
Citation 11 & 12 Vict. c. 2
Dates
Royal assent 20 December 1847

The Prevention of Crime (Ireland) Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 2) was a bill passed by the British Parliament regarding crime in Ireland, which was then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The bill was introduced by Sir George Grey on 29 November 1847, and was passed by both houses; it received royal assent on 20 December 1847. It was passed because of growing Irish nationalist agitation that was causing the British government concern about a possible violent rebellion against British rule in Ireland. [1]

The bill gave the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the power to organise the island into districts and bring police forces into them at the districts' expense. It limited who could own guns and, under penalty, coerced all of the men between the ages of 16 and 60 to join in a type of posse comitatus in each district to assist in apprehending suspected murderers when killings took place, or else be guilty of a misdemeanour themselves.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament of the United Kingdom</span> Legislative body in the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster in London. Parliament possesses legislative supremacy and thereby holds ultimate power over all other political bodies in the United Kingdom and the Overseas Territories. While Parliament is bicameral, it has three parts: the sovereign (King-in-Parliament), the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. In theory, power is officially vested in the King-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the prime minister, and the powers of the House of Lords are limited to only delaying legislation; thus power is de facto vested in the House of Commons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Famine (Ireland)</span> Famine in Ireland from 1845 to 1852

The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and subsequently had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole. The most severely affected areas were in the western and southern parts of Ireland—where the Irish language was dominant—and hence the period was contemporaneously known in Irish as an Drochshaol, which literally translates to "the bad life" and loosely translates to "the hard times". The worst year of the famine was 1847, which became known as "Black '47". During the Great Hunger, roughly 1 million people died and more than 1 million more fled the country, causing the country's population to fall by 20–25% between 1841 and 1871. Between 1845 and 1855, at least 2.1 million people left Ireland, primarily on packet ships but also on steamboats and barques—one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history.

A bill of attainder is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attainder resulting from the normal judicial process, the effect of such a bill is to nullify the targeted person's civil rights, most notably the right to own property, the right to a title of nobility, and, in at least the original usage, the right to life itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Russell, 1st Earl Russell</span> Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1846–1852 and 1865–1866

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell,, known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Hack Tuke</span> British businessman and philanthropist (1819–1896)

James Hack Tuke was an English philanthropist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Murder Act 1965 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It abolished the death penalty for murder in Great Britain. The act replaced the penalty of death with a mandatory sentence of imprisonment for life.

Sligo Borough is a former borough constituency in Ireland, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinclair Pass</span> Mountain pass in British Columbia, Canada

Sinclair Pass is a high mountain pass in Kootenay National Park between the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers to the northeast of present-day Radium Hot Springs in the province of British Columbia, Canada.

Events from the year 1782 in Ireland.

The Panic of 1847 was a major British commercial and banking crisis, possibly triggered by the announcement in early March 1847 of government borrowing to pay for relief to combat the Great Famine in Ireland. It is also associated with the end of the 1840s railway industry boom and the failure of many non-bank lenders. The crisis was composed of two phases, one in April 1847 and one in October 1847, which was more serious and known as 'The Week of Terror'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chronology of the Great Famine</span>

The chronology of the Great Famine documents a period of Irish history between 29 November 1845 and 1852 during which time the population of Ireland was reduced by 20 to 25 percent. The proximate cause was famine resulting from a potato disease commonly known as late blight. Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland – where a third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food but which also produced an abundance of other food – was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors which remain the subject of historical debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard More O'Ferrall</span> Irish-born British politician (1979–1880)

Richard More O'Ferrall was an Irish politician, a high level British government official and a Governor of Malta. Born to a noble Irish Catholic family at Balyna, he was the eldest son and heir of Ambrose More O'Ferrall, Lord of Laois and Prince of Annally. Educated at Stonyhurst College, More O'Ferrall entered politics young, becoming Member of Parliament for Kildare in 1830. In 1839, More O'Ferrall married Matilda, daughter of The 3rd Viscount Southwell, KP. After holding many senior roles, he was appointed Governor of Malta in 1847, a post he held until 1851. He was known to be a very honourable man and was made a deputy lieutenant and a justice of the peace as well as a Member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. He stepped down as a Member of Parliament for Kildare in 1865. More O'Ferrall was widely respected, both in Ireland and Great Britain and has been praised for his achievements while Governor of Malta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Factories Act 1847</span> 1847 United Kingdom Act of Parliament

The Factories Act 1847, also known as the Ten Hours Act was a United Kingdom Act of Parliament which restricted the working hours of women and young persons (13–18) in textile mills to 10 hours per day. The practicalities of running a textile mill were such that the Act should have effectively set the same limit on the working hours of adult male mill-workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish Home Rule movement</span> Political campaign for self-government (1870–1918)

The Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the end of World War I.

The York, Hull and East and West Yorkshire Junction Railway was a proposed railway line, promoted in the mid 1840s, intended to connect York to the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

The 1887 Taunton by-election was held on 23 April 1887 in Taunton, Somerset, following the succession of the incumbent, Samuel Charles Allsopp, to the peerage upon the death of his father, becoming 2nd Baron Hindlip. One of Lord Hindlip's brothers, Alfred Percy Allsopp, stood for the Conservative Party, while James Harris Sanders was the candidate for the Liberal Party. Allsopp was elected, with a majority of 536 votes (23.1%).

The Londonderry Borough Police was the police force in the city of Derry, County Londonderry, Ireland, from 1848 to 1870, nicknamed the Horney Dicks after the bones used in their helmets. They replaced the earlier town watch and were in turn replaced by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). The police force was established by the Londonderry Improvement Act 1848 and were governed by the Londonderry Corporation. Its abolition was recommended by a royal commission of inquiry into sectarian riots in the city in 1869. The commission felt the force, having the form of a town watch, was inadequate to policing serious crime; it also noted, but did not endorse, allegations that the police discriminated against Roman Catholics.

Stephen Edmund Spring Rice, styled The Honourable from 1839 until his death, was an Anglo-Irish civil servant and philanthropist. He served as the Secretary of the British Relief Association between 1847 and 1848.

<i>United Irishman</i> (1848 newspaper)

The United Irishman was a nationalist weekly newspaper published by John Mitchel in Dublin in 1848. It was suppressed by the British Government the same year.

References

  1. Woodham-Smith, Cecil The Great Hunger Ireland 1845 1849 Harper and Row, New York, pages 326-327