Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922
Encyclopedia
The Civil Authorities Act (Northern Ireland) 1922, often referred to simply as the Special Powers Act, was an Act
passed by the Parliament of Northern Ireland
shortly after the establishment of Northern Ireland
, and in the context of violent conflict over the issue of the partition of Ireland
. Its sweeping powers made it highly controversial, and it was seen by much of the Northern Irish nationalist
community as a tool of Ulster unionist oppression.
The Act was eventually repealed by the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973
, following the abolition of Northern Ireland's parliament and the imposition of direct rule
by the British government.
, identified primarily as Irish, and wanted some form of Irish home rule or independence from Britain. The smaller group (Ulster unionists), concentrated primarily in the province of Ulster
, were mostly Protestant, identified primarily as British (although many saw themselves as Irish and British), and were committed to remaining within the United Kingdom
. In the years before World War I
, both groups established armed militias intended to enforce their aims and protect their communities from the other side's militias. A compromise was reached whereby the island of Ireland would be partitioned, with the six most Protestant counties of Ulster becoming the state of Northern Ireland
while the rest of Ireland achieved self-rule. This was accepted by most unionists as the best deal they were likely to get, but bitterly disappointed many nationalists, especially those who lived in the six counties which became Northern Ireland. Many nationalists on both sides of the border felt that their country had been unjustly divided, and for many decades the Irish government claimed that Northern Ireland was rightfully their territory.
Partition was formally established with the Government of Ireland Act 1920
. This also established the Parliament of Northern Ireland
, which came into being the following year. Partition was followed by high levels of inter-communal violence, especially in Belfast
. The Irish Republican Army
, although it spent most of these years fighting in the Irish Civil War
, aimed to use armed force to end partition and compel the United Kingdom to withdraw sovereignty from Northern Ireland.
was empowered to make any regulation felt necessary to preserve law and order in Northern Ireland. Any who broke these regulations could be sentenced to up to a year in prison with hard labour, and in the case of some crimes, whipping. A special summary jurisdiction
(court with no jury) was enabled to hear cases involving such crimes. The Home Affairs Minister was also permitted to forbid the holding of inquests, if he felt this was required to preserve order and peace.
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. 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 (Unionist
) Minister of Home Affairs that it would be better to make the Act permanent than for Parliament annually to 'wrangle' over it.
was the only party ever to form a government in this parliament, the Act was used 'almost exclusively on the minority population'. 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'. In the period from May 1922 to December 1924, 700 republicans
were interned under the Act.
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.' Regulations such as internment and the establishment of curfews were used far less, and those such as the banning of meetings and parades, and restrictions on the flying of the Irish tricolour became more common. Between 1922 and 1950, the government banned nearly 100 parades and meetings, the vast majority of which were nationalist or republican. No loyalist
gathering was ever directly banned under the Act, although a few were caught in blanket bans against parades or meetings in a particular area. From 1922 until 1972, 140 publications were banned, the vast majority of which expressed republican viewpoints. The Act was also used against communist publications and recordings. Likewise the vast majority of groups banned under the Act were republican; the 1960s incarnation of the Ulster Volunteer Force was the only loyalist group to be made illegal in this way.
After the troubles of the early 1920s had died down, the provision for internment was not used until the IRA's border campaign
of the 1950s, in which several hundred republicans were interned. Following the outbreak of the Troubles
in 1968, many within the Protestant community called for the reintroduction of internment. This occurred in 1971, and authorised internment of those suspected to be involved in terrorism. Although there were loyalist as well as republican terrorists at this time, of the 1,981 men interned, only 107 were loyalists. Due to inadequate intelligence-gathering, many of the interned republicans were members of the Official IRA
rather than the recently-formed Provisional IRA, which was much more heavily involved in terrorist activity at the time.
Internment ended in 1975, but is credited with increasing support and sympathy for the PIRA amongst the Catholic community and outside of Northern Ireland. It helped to create political tensions which culminated in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike
and the death of MP
Bobby Sands
. Imprisonment under anti-terrorism laws specific to Northern Ireland continued until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, but these laws required the right to a fair trial be respected.
in Northern Ireland and its role in maintaining order and similar policing-style duties. In 1972, the government was forced to amend the Act in order to legalise the detention of internees arrested by soldiers. Martin Meehan
had been arrested after escaping from Crumlin Road Jail and charged with escaping from lawful custody. At his trial he successfully argued that under the Special Powers Act a soldier had no power of arrest and, as such, he had the legal right to escape, and was awarded £800 in compensation for being illegally detained for twenty-three days.
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
passed by the Parliament of Northern Ireland
Parliament of Northern Ireland
The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended...
shortly after the establishment of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, and in the context of violent conflict over the issue of the partition of Ireland
Partition of Ireland
The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct territories, now Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . Partition occurred when the British Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1920...
. Its sweeping powers made it highly controversial, and it was seen by much of the Northern Irish nationalist
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
community as a tool of Ulster unionist oppression.
The Act was eventually repealed by the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973
Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973
The Northern Ireland Act 1973 was 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. It has mostly been repealed, the anti-terrorism...
, following the abolition of Northern Ireland's parliament and the imposition of direct rule
Direct Rule
Direct rule was the term given, during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, to the administration of Northern Ireland directly from Westminster, seat of United Kingdom government...
by the British government.
Context of Act's passage
At the start of the twentieth century, the people of Ireland were divided into two mutually hostile factions. The much larger group (Irish nationalists) were mostly Roman CatholicRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, identified primarily as Irish, and wanted some form of Irish home rule or independence from Britain. The smaller group (Ulster unionists), concentrated primarily in the province of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
, were mostly Protestant, identified primarily as British (although many saw themselves as Irish and British), and were committed to remaining within the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. In the years before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, both groups established armed militias intended to enforce their aims and protect their communities from the other side's militias. A compromise was reached whereby the island of Ireland would be partitioned, with the six most Protestant counties of Ulster becoming the state of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
while the rest of Ireland achieved self-rule. This was accepted by most unionists as the best deal they were likely to get, but bitterly disappointed many nationalists, especially those who lived in the six counties which became Northern Ireland. Many nationalists on both sides of the border felt that their country had been unjustly divided, and for many decades the Irish government claimed that Northern Ireland was rightfully their territory.
Partition was formally established with the Government of Ireland Act 1920
Government of Ireland Act 1920
The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was the Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which partitioned Ireland. The Act's long title was "An Act to provide for the better government of Ireland"; it is also known as the Fourth Home Rule Bill or as the Fourth Home Rule Act.The Act was intended...
. This also established the Parliament of Northern Ireland
Parliament of Northern Ireland
The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended...
, which came into being the following year. Partition was followed by high levels of inter-communal violence, especially in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
. The Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
, although it spent most of these years fighting in the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
, aimed to use armed force to end partition and compel the United Kingdom to withdraw sovereignty from Northern Ireland.
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 Home Affairs MinisterMinister of Home Affairs (Northern Ireland)
The Minister of Home Affairs was a member of the Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in the Parliament of Northern Ireland which governed Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1972...
was empowered to make any regulation felt necessary to preserve law and order in Northern Ireland. Any who broke these regulations could be sentenced to up to a year in prison with hard labour, and in the case of some crimes, whipping. A special summary jurisdiction
Summary jurisdiction
Summary jurisdiction, in the widest sense of the phrase, in English law includes the power asserted by courts of record to deal brevi manu with contempts of court without the intervention of a jury. Probably the power was originally exercisable only when the fact was notorious, i.e. done in...
(court with no jury) was enabled to hear cases involving such crimes. The Home Affairs Minister was also permitted to forbid the holding of inquests, if he felt this was required to preserve order and peace.
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. 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 (Unionist
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
) Minister of Home Affairs that it would be better to make the Act permanent than for Parliament annually to 'wrangle' over it.
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 PartyUlster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
was the only party ever to form a government in this parliament, the Act was used 'almost exclusively on the minority population'. Initially regulations under the Act were used mostly to curb immediate violence and disorder. One of the most controversial of these was internment
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
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'. In the period from May 1922 to December 1924, 700 republicans
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
were interned under the Act.
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.' Regulations such as internment and the establishment of curfews were used far less, and those such as the banning of meetings and parades, and restrictions on the flying of the Irish tricolour became more common. Between 1922 and 1950, the government banned nearly 100 parades and meetings, the vast majority of which were nationalist or republican. No loyalist
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
gathering was ever directly banned under the Act, although a few were caught in blanket bans against parades or meetings in a particular area. From 1922 until 1972, 140 publications were banned, the vast majority of which expressed republican viewpoints. The Act was also used against communist publications and recordings. Likewise the vast majority of groups banned under the Act were republican; the 1960s incarnation of the Ulster Volunteer Force was the only loyalist group to be made illegal in this way.
After the troubles of the early 1920s had died down, the provision for internment was not used until the IRA's border campaign
Border Campaign (IRA)
The Border Campaign was a campaign of guerrilla warfare carried out by the Irish Republican Army against targets in Northern Ireland, with the aim of overthrowing British rule there and creating a united Ireland.Popularly referred to as the Border Campaign, it was also referred to as the...
of the 1950s, in which several hundred republicans were interned. Following the outbreak of the Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
in 1968, many within the Protestant community called for the reintroduction of internment. This occurred in 1971, and authorised internment of those suspected to be involved in terrorism. Although there were loyalist as well as republican terrorists at this time, of the 1,981 men interned, only 107 were loyalists. Due to inadequate intelligence-gathering, many of the interned republicans were members of the Official IRA
Official IRA
The Official Irish Republican Army or Official IRA is an Irish republican paramilitary group whose goal was to create a "32-county workers' republic" in Ireland. It emerged from a split in the Irish Republican Army in December 1969, shortly after the beginning of "The Troubles"...
rather than the recently-formed Provisional IRA, which was much more heavily involved in terrorist activity at the time.
Internment ended in 1975, but is credited with increasing support and sympathy for the PIRA amongst the Catholic community and outside of Northern Ireland. It helped to create political tensions which culminated in the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike
1981 Irish hunger strike
The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during The Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners...
and the death of MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Bobby Sands
Bobby Sands
Robert Gerard "Bobby" Sands was an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of the United Kingdom Parliament who died on hunger strike while imprisoned in HM Prison Maze....
. Imprisonment under anti-terrorism laws specific to Northern Ireland continued until the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, but these laws required the right to a fair trial be respected.
The Act and the Army
The Act encountered further controversy in the 1970s due to the deployment of the ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in Northern Ireland and its role in maintaining order and similar policing-style duties. In 1972, the government was forced to amend the Act in order to legalise the detention of internees arrested by soldiers. Martin Meehan
Martin Meehan (Irish republican)
Martin Meehan was a Sinn Féin politician and former volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army . Meehan was the first person to be convicted of membership of the Provisional IRA, and he spent eighteen years in prison during the Troubles.-Background and IRA activity:Meehan was born in 1945...
had been arrested after escaping from Crumlin Road Jail and charged with escaping from lawful custody. At his trial he successfully argued that under the Special Powers Act a soldier had no power of arrest and, as such, he had the legal right to escape, and was awarded £800 in compensation for being illegally detained for twenty-three days.
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 another sovereign state.External links
- Text of the Special Powers Act
- John Whyte, 'How much discrimination was there under the unionist regime, 1921-68?', Contemporary Irish Studies (1983): See section on Emergency legislation.