Public Safety Acts and emergency powers in Irish Free State

E78971

Public Safety Acts and emergency powers in the Irish Free State were a series of extraordinary legal measures that greatly expanded the government's authority to suppress dissent, detain opponents, and restore order in the turbulent aftermath of independence and civil war.

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Statements (43)

Predicate Object
instanceOf emergency legislation
extraordinary legal measures
appliesToJurisdiction Irish Free State
characterizedBy broad definition of public safety offences
expansion of executive power
suspension of normal civil liberties
use of special courts
country Irish Free State
criticizedFor authoritarian tendencies
human rights violations
weakening of due process
grantsPowerTo National Army of the Irish Free State
surface form: Irish Free State Army

Irish Free State Executive Council
Irish Free State police forces
hasContext Irish Civil War aftermath
post-independence instability in Ireland
hasEffect curtailment of political opposition
normalisation of emergency rule practices
strengthening of central government control
hasPurpose consolidation of state authority
detention of political opponents
restoration of public order
suppression of dissent
implementedBy Irish Free State Oireachtas
Irish Free State
surface form: Irish Free State executive authorities
influenced later Irish emergency powers frameworks
influencedBy British emergency legislation tradition
legalBasisFor censorship of publications
curfews and movement restrictions
internment without trial
military tribunals
proscription of organisations
motivatedBy desire to protect the new state
fear of renewed civil conflict
partOf legal history of the Irish Free State
relatedTo Irish Civil War
Irish War of Independence
surface form: Irish revolutionary period

state-building in postcolonial Ireland
targets anti-Treaty IRA
perceived subversive elements
republican militants
timePeriod early 1920s
post-1922 independence era

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Irish Civil War legalConsequence Public Safety Acts and emergency powers in Irish Free State