Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922
This article may be unbalanced towards certain viewpoints. (July 2015) |
Other legislation | |
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Repealed by | Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973 |
Relates to | Public Order Act (Northern Ireland) 1951, Flags and Emblems (Display) Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 |
Status: Repealed |
The Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 (12 & 13 Geo. 5. c. 5 (N.I.)), often referred to simply as the Special Powers Act and known as the "Flogging Act", was an
Context of Act's passage
At the start of the twentieth century, the
Partition was formally established with the
The Act
The Act was presented as being necessary to re-establish peace and law and order in Northern Ireland, and enabled the government to 'take all such steps and issue all such orders as may be necessary for preserving the peace and maintaining order', although it was specified that the ordinary course of law should be interfered with as little as possible. The
The Schedule to the Act specified actions which the government could take in order to preserve peace, although the body of the Act enabled the government to take any steps at all which it thought necessary. Actions specified in the Schedule included the closing of licensed premises; the banning in any area of meetings and parades in public places; the closing of roads; the taking of any land or property; and the destruction of any building. The Schedule also forbade the spreading by word of mouth or text any 'reports or... statements intended or likely to cause disaffection to subjects of His Majesty'.
Because it was presented as emergency legislation, the Act was initially current only for one year and had to be renewed annually. In 1928, however, it was renewed for five years and when this period expired in 1933 the Act was made permanent.[5] According to John Whyte, this happened because, from 1925, nationalist MPs began sitting in the Stormont parliament which they had initially boycotted. Unsurprisingly, they objected strenuously to the renewal of the Act, and it was felt by the (Ulster Unionist Party) Minister of Home Affairs that it would be better to make the Act permanent than for Parliament annually to 'wrangle' over it.[citation needed]
Use of the Act
Despite rhetoric accompanying the Act which asserted that it was for the purpose of restoring public order, its provisions continued to be used for the entire period of the Northern Irish parliament's existence. Because the Ulster Unionist Party was the only party ever to form a government in this parliament, the Act was used 'almost exclusively on the minority population'.[6] Initially, regulations under the Act were used mostly to curb immediate violence and disorder. One of the most controversial of these was internment without trial.
Paragraph 23 of the Schedule allowed for the indefinite internment without warrant or trial of 'any person whose behaviour is of such a nature as to give reasonable grounds for suspecting that he has acted or is acting or is about to act in a manner prejudicial to the preservation of the peace or maintenance of order'. The Irish politician Cahir Healy was interned for 18 months in 1922-23 and is quoted on the reasons he was interned: "All my life Ive been a man of peace. It is not therefore, because they feared that I would disturb the peace of Northern Ireland that they dragged me away from my wife and family, but for political reasons. I have been engaged in preparing the case for the inclusion of these areas (Fermanagh and Tyrone) in the Free State. To get me out of the way, local politicians urged my arrest".[7] In the period from May 1922 to December 1924, 700 republicans were interned under the Act.[8] Many of the internees were imprisoned on a British Navy hulk (HMS Argenta) which has been described as a "floating gulag".[9]
Political violence had declined dramatically by 1925, and the government gradually shifted its emphasis from broad measures designed to return civil order to the province to more preventative regulations aimed at suppressing the threat posed by republican aspirations.'
After the troubles of the early 1920s had died down, the provision for internment was not used until the
Internment ended in 1975, but is credited with increasing support and sympathy for the PIRA amongst the Catholic community and outside of Northern Ireland.[
The Act and the Army
The Act encountered further controversy in the 1970s due to the deployment of the
Related legislation
Public Order Act 1951
This enabled the Home Affairs Minister to ban or re-route any 'non-traditional' procession if it was likely to lead to disorder. It was used primarily against nationalist parades and took over the function of controlling parades and processions from the Special Powers Act.
Flags and Emblems (Display) Act
This made it an offence to interfere with the display of the Union Jack on private property and enabled the police to remove any other flag if it was likely to cause public disorder. This act was primarily directed against displays of the Irish tricolour, although contrary to popular belief, it did not ban it. This was because it would have been legally very difficult for the Northern Irish government to ban the flag of a sovereign state.
References
Sources
- Primary
- Text as passed: "Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland), 1922". CAIN.
- Stormont Commons Hansard Vol.2; debates on bill: c.29 1st r., c.86 2nd r., c.150 Comm., c.246 Report, c.271 3rd r., c.347 c.401 Senate amendments, c.410 assent
- Secondary
- Dohonue, Laura K. (1998). "Regulating Northern Ireland: The Special Powers Acts, 1922–1972". The Historical Journal. 41 (4).
- Whyte, John (1983). "How much discrimination was there under the unionist regime, 1921–68?". In Gallagher, Tom; O'Connell, James (eds.). Contemporary Irish Studies. ISBN 0-7190-0919-7.
References
- ^ McGuffin, John (1973), Internment!, Anvil Books Ltd, Tralee, Ireland, pg 23.
- ^ Lord Cameron (September 1969). "Summary of Conclusions on Causes of Disorders". Disturbances in Northern Ireland: Report of the Commission appointed by the Governor of Northern Ireland. NI Command papers. Vol. Cmd.532. Belfast: HMSO. ¶229(a)(6). Archived from the original on 1 June 2018. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
- ^ Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Act.
- ^ Paragraph 23 of the Act.
- ^ Whyte 1983
- ^ Dohonue 1998 p.1090.
- ^ Phoenix, Eamon & Parkinson, Alan (2010), Conflicts in the North of Ireland, 1900–2000, Four Courts Press, Dublin, pp. 140–141, ISBN 978-1-84682-189-9
- ^ a b Donohue, p.1092.
- ^ Kleinrichert, Denise (2001), Republican internment and the prison ship Argenta 1922, Irish Academic Press, ISBN 978-0-7165-2683-4
- ^ Donohue, p.1093.
- ^ Donohue, pp.1094-5.
- ^ Donohue, p.1103.
- ^ Donohue, p.1105
- ^ Boyd, Andrew (1984), Northern Ireland: Who is to Blame?, The Mercier Press Limited, Dublin, pg 85, ISBN 0 85342 708 9
- ISBN 978-1-901005-05-9.