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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2020
This article examines a campaign of jury intimidation conducted by female Republicans in the Irish Free State from 1926 to 1934. It discusses the rationale, logistics and key personalities of the campaign, as well as the policing, prosecutorial and legislative responses to it. The article demonstrates that a small number of women disrupted the administration of justice and generated a significant amount of publicity for their actions, not only in Ireland but also in the British press. In-depth consideration of this overlooked campaign brings issues of gender, state legitimacy, subversive activity and the vulnerability of the jury system into sharp relief.
He thanks Lynsey Black, Eve Morrison, Cróine Magan, and Conor Mulvagh for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. He also thanks Justin Furlong of the National Library of Ireland for his help in relation to the Annie O'Farrelly papers. He acknowledges the assistance of the UCD Sutherland School of Law Research Fund.
1. Report of Superintendent Peter Ennis, September 2, 1929, National Archives of Ireland (hereafter NAI) JUS/2007/56/181.
2. Ibid. Republicans, who opposed the Anglo–Irish Treaty of 1921 and the Irish Free State established in 1922, were referred to as “Irregulars” by the Free State Government. Humphreys' name was often misspelled “Humphries” in newspaper and official reports. She sometimes used the Irish version of her name, Sighle Nic Amhlaoibh.
3. The surviving material indicates that although witness intimidation and retaliation also occurred in 1920s Ireland, it was never as methodical or sustained as the campaign to influence jury verdicts. For an example of a particularly violent attack on a witness, where a man was tarred and feathered, see “Kidnapped, Assaulted and Left on Roadside,” The Cork Examiner, June 27, 1927, 7. Witnesses to this incident were then threatened not to testify in turn. See “The Dundalk Outrage: Threatening Letters,” Irish Independent, August 12, 1927, 10. The original attack was defended in the Republican press. See “Tarring Mr Parks,” An Phoblacht, July 8, 1927, 1.
4. Ward, Margaret, Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism (London: Pluto, 1983), 206–8Google Scholar; Hanley, Brian, The IRA, 1926–1936 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002), 99–101Google Scholar; O'Longaigh, Seosamh, Emergency Law in Independent Ireland 1922–1948 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006), 88–91Google Scholar; and O'Halpin, Eunan, Defending Ireland: The Irish State and its Enemies since 1922 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 66, 78Google Scholar.
5. A notable exception is Bheacháin, Caoilfhinn Ní, “Seeing Ghosts: Gothic Discourses and State Formation,” Ėire-Ireland 47 (2012): 37–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar, which discusses the campaign as part of an analysis of Gothic motifs in the Irish Free State.
6. It is not discussed in Matthews, Ann, Dissidents: Irish Republican Women 1923–1941 (Dublin: Mercier, 2012)Google Scholar. McCarthy, Cal, Cumann na mBan and the Irish Revolution, 2nd ed (Dublin: Collins Press, 2014)Google Scholar surveys the organization from 1914 to 1923, and so does not include the period covered in the present article. The jailing of the subject of the biography for attempting to interfere with jurors is not referred to in Regan, Nell, Helena Molony: A Radical Life 1883-–1967 (Dublin: Arlen House, 2017)Google Scholar.
7. See Valiulis, Maryann, “Defining Their Role in the New State: Irishwomen's Protest Against the Juries Act of 1927,” Canadian Journal of Irish Studies 18 (1992): 43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8. One noteworthy exception is Hanly, Conor, “The 1916 Proclamation and Jury Trial in the Irish Free State,” Dublin University Law Journal 39 (2016): 373Google Scholar.
9. Hopkinson, Michael, Green Against Green: The Irish Civil War (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1988), 127Google Scholar.
10. In one incident, Republican prisoners were forced to stand on a landmine. See Townshend, Charles, Ireland: The 20th Century (London: Hodder Arnold, 1999), 116Google Scholar.
11. See Kissane, Bill, “Defending Democracy? The Legislative Response to Political Extremism in the Irish Free State, 1922–39” Irish Historical Studies 34 (2004): 156–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
12. Townshend, Ireland: The 20th Century, 127. Characterizations of this nature are challenged by those who argue that life in the Irish Free State was more varied, enjoyable, and cosmopolitan than has often been portrayed in the historiography. See Dolan, A., “Politics, Economy and Society in the Irish Free State, 1922–1939,” in The Cambridge History of Ireland Volume IV, ed. Bartlett, T (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 323CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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15. McGarry, Fergal, “Independent Ireland,” in The Princeton History of Modern Ireland, ed. Bourke, Richard and McBride, Ian (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016), 109CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
16. Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland, 304.
17. Treasonable Offences Act 1925, s 1.
18. Ibid., s 6.
19. Ibid., s 7(3).
20. See Valiulis, “Defining Their Role.”
21. See Crosby, Kevin, “Keeping Women off the Jury in 1920s England and Wales,” Legal Studies 37 (2017): 695CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Choo, Andrew and Hunter, Jill, “Gender Discrimination and Juries in the 20th Century: Judging Women Judging Men,” International Journal of Evidence and Proof 22 (2018): 192CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
22. Juries (Amendment) Act 1924, s 3.
23. Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, s 1.
24. Juries Act 1927, s 16.
25. For example, a jury list dated June 2, 1926 and contained in the National Library of Ireland provides the names and addresses of 200 potential jurors, of whom 18 were female. Most of these women would have been comfortably-off widows or unmarried women. Where a married couple occupied property that satisfied the rateable valuation required for jury service, the property would generally have been in the name of the husband alone. See National Library of Ireland (hereafter NLI) MS 47,646/4.
26. In October 1926, the police seized a batch of unsent circulars from offices at 27 Dawson Street in Dublin city center. One of the unposted envelopes is addressed to a woman whose name appears on the jury panel. She was Mrs. Gwendoline Peasgood of 4 Pretoria Villas, Strand Road, Sandymount, Dublin. See NAI CCC/Dub City and Co Dec 1926, 1C-139-31.
27. Seanad Debates, June 20, 1929, vol. 12, col. 862. The speaker was James Fitzgerald-Kenney, the Minister for Justice.
28. Ward, Unmanageable Revolutionaries, published in 1983, was a noteworthy exception to a general amnesia about the contribution of women to the national struggle. An honorable mention should also be given to Fox, Richard Michael, Rebel Irishwomen (Dublin: Talbot Press, 1935)Google Scholar.
29. See, for example, McDiarmid, Lucy, At Home in the Revolution: What Women Said and Did in 1916 (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2015)Google Scholar; McAuliffe, Mary and Gillis, Liz, Richmond Barracks 1916: We Were There: 77 Women of the Easter Rising (Dublin: Dublin City Council, 2016)Google Scholar. A useful overview of the development of the literature on revolutionary women is provided in Paseta, Senia, Irish Nationalist Women 1900–1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 2–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
30. McAuliffe and Gillis, Richmond Barracks 1916, 23.
31. Initially, the organization's stated aim was to achieve Irish freedom by arming and equipping men. At its 1918 convention it changed its position, stating that any monies it collected were to be deployed in “the arming and equipping of the men and women of Ireland.” See Ward, Margaret, “Marginality and Militancy: Cumann na mBan, 1914–1936,” in Ireland: Divided Nation, Divided Class, ed. Morgan, Austin and Purdie, Bob (London: Ink Links, 1980), 96, 103Google Scholar.
32. McGarry, Fergal, The Rising: Ireland, Easter 1916 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 161Google Scholar.
33. Hopkinson, Green Against Green, 128.
34. O'Hegarty, Patrick Sarsfield, The Victory of Sinn Féin (Dublin: Talbot Press, 1924), 58Google Scholar.
35. This is evident from the numerous police reports about her activities, such as those contained in NAI JUS/2007/56/181. Her status as the leader of the campaign has also been noted by historians. See, for example, Ward, Unmanageable Revolutionaries, 207, and Mahon, Tom and Gillogly, James, Decoding the IRA (Cork: Mercier, 2008), 86Google Scholar.
36. Her brother Emmet was also jailed for his involvement in the Civil War.
37. “Sensational Dublin Raids,” The Northern Whig and Belfast Post, November 6, 1922, 8.
38. McCoole, Sinéad, No Ordinary Women (Dublin: O'Brien Press, 2015), 190Google Scholar.
39. MacEoin, Uinseann, Survivors (Dublin: Argenta Publications, 1980), 49Google Scholar.
40. See, for example, “Girls with Paint and Brushes,” The Dublin Evening Mail, April 22, 1926, 3. According to documents internal to Cumann na mBan, “Painting inscriptions on walls is [a] very effective method of getting publicity.” Lecture on the Aims and Programme of Cumann na mBan, September 1930, University College Dublin Archives (hereafter UCDA) P106/1149(3).
41. Taylor, Paul, Heroes or Traitors?: Experiences of Southern Irish Soldiers Returning from the Great War 1919–1939 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2015), 215CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
42. See, for example, “A Scene in College Green: Women the Cause of a Disturbance,” The Dublin Evening Mail, November 11, 1926, 5. The previous year smoke bombs had been thrown into the crowd. See “Dublin's Memorable Tribute,” The Dublin Evening Mail, November 11, 1925, 3. The Dublin Evening Mail was a unionist newspaper favourable to the British Empire. It is estimated that 30,000 people annually attended the Remembrance Sunday commemorations in the mid-1920s. McGarry, Fergal, “‘Too Damned Tolerant’: Republicans and Imperialism in the Irish Free State,” in Republicanism in Modern Ireland, ed. McGarry, Fergal (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2013), 61, 64Google Scholar.
43. In addition to its various campaigns, Cumann na mBan was also present at major public events such as the Spring Show and the Dublin Horse Show. It took exhibition stands at these events on a number of occasions. See UCDA P61/4(72) and NAI S/5864A.
44. Howlin, Niamh, Juries in Ireland: Laypersons and Law in the Long Nineteenth Century (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2017), 157–62Google Scholar. See also Howlin, Niamh, “‘The Terror of their Lives’: Irish Jurors’ Experiences,” Law and History Review 29 (2011): 703, 723–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
45. See The National Archives, London, PRO 30/60/12. See also “Audacious Circular from Manchester,” The Manchester Evening News, May 14, 1883, 2.
46. “Sinn Fein's Latest: Audacious Circular to Jurors,” The Londonderry Sentinel, December 9, 1919, 3.
47. Bureau of Military History, Witness Statement of Nancy Wyse-Power (WS 541), Military Archives, Dublin. The witness statements are available online at http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921 (accessed April 10, 2020). On the Ladies Land League, see Ward, Margaret, “The Ladies’ Land League and the Irish Land War 1881/1882: Defining the Relationship Between Women and Nation,” in Gendered Nations: Nationalisms and Gender Order in the Long Nineteenth Century, ed. Blom, Ida, Hageman, Karen, and Hall, Catherine (Oxford: Berg, 2000), 229–44Google Scholar.
48. See, for example, its coverage of the attendance of the President of the Executive Council at a Buckingham Palace dinner. “Cosgrave in Tights,” An Phoblacht, November 12, 1926, 3.
49. Its sarcastic coverage of the murder of Minister for Justice Kevin O'Higgins provides a flavor of its attitude to lethal violence. “Alas! Poor Kevin,” An Phoblacht, July 22, 1927, 3.
50. See, for example, “Trinity Mentality: The ‘Little Pale,’” An Phoblacht, August 6, 1926, 3; “English Papers Seized: Excitement at Dunleary,” An Phoblacht, March 18, 1927, 1. See further, See McGarry, “‘Too Damned Tolerant,’” 61, 63–73; Bheacháin, Caoilfhinn Ní, “‘The Mosquito Press’: Anti-Imperialist Rhetoric in Republican Journalism, 1926–39,” Ėire-Ireland 42 (2007): 246–89Google Scholar.
51. It is estimated that 8,000 copies per week were sold in 1930, rising to 10,000 per week in 1932. See Hanley, The IRA, 53. Hanley doubts that the newspaper ever “had anything approaching a mass circulation.” Hanley, ibid.
52. The newspaper came under the control of the IRA Army Council with the appointment of Peadar O'Donnell as editor in 1926. See James McHugh, “Voices of the Rearguard: A Study of An Phoblacht – Irish Republican Thought in the Post-Revolutionary Era, 1923–37” (unpublished MA Thesis, University College Dublin, 1983), 63.
53. See, for example, “Papers Seized in Dublin,” The Weekly Irish Times, November 27, 1926, 10. From 1931, particular issues were banned under Article 2A of the Constitution. See “Organ Again Suppressed,” The Irish Times, November 5, 1931, 7.
54. It was banned in Northern Ireland. See “Republican Paper Banned,” The Fermanagh Herald, December 10, 1927, 9.
55. “Prisoners to be Tried,” An Phoblacht, November 13, 1925, 3.
56. “Floral Wreath Held up at Police Court,” The Larne Times and Weekly Telegraph, August 21, 1926, 2. For discussion of the anti-usury campaign generally, see Hanley, The IRA, 75–76.
57. “What Will Dublin Jurors Do?” An Phoblacht, August 13, 1926, 1.
58. “Open Letter to Co. Wexford Jurors,” An Phoblacht, August 20, 1926, 1.
59. Ibid.
60. Bell, John Bowyer, The Secret Army: The IRA, revised 3rd ed. (Dublin: Poolbeg, 1997), 95Google Scholar; and Ward, Unmanageable Revolutionaries, 206.
61. The jurors in Denis Allen's case had already been named by the newspaper in March 1926. See “Treason Act Case,” An Phoblacht, March 5, 1926, 1.
62. Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 146.
63. Murders and Principal Outrages Committed by Irregulars Since the “Cease Fire” Order, April 1923, NAI S/5864B. One of the raiders, Patrick McDonnell, was convicted of assault and firearms offenses in relation to the raid. See “Sheriffs Office Raid: Sequel at Dublin Criminal Court,” The Cork Examiner, May 25, 1927, 3. On the role of the sub-sheriff or under-sheriff in the preparation of the jury lists in the Victorian period, see Howlin, Juries in Ireland, 27–29.
64. NLI MS 47,646/4.
65. UCDA P106/1107. Annie O'Farrelly's name is given in Irish as Áine Ní Fhaircheallaigh in the account of the meeting.
66. Ibid. These meetings were held on September 24 and October 7, 1926.
67. Letter from Sighle Humphreys to Brighid Ni Cumhaill, October 20, 1926, NAI CCC/Dub City and Co Dec 1926, 1C-139-31.
68. Cumann na mBan circular dated October 15, 1926, NAI CCC/Dub City and Co Dec 1926, 1C-139-31.
69. Usury circular (undated), NAI CCC/Dub City and Co Dec 1926, 1C-139-31.
70. However, this impression would have been somewhat undermined by the fact that the first circular (identified as emanating from Cumann na mBan) and the third circular (identified as being published by the Political Prisoners’ Committee) provided the same address at 27 Dawson Street, Dublin. On Maud Gonne, see Ward, M., Maud Gonne: Ireland's Joan of Arc (London: Unwin Hyman, 1990)Google Scholar.
71. Political Prisoners’ Committee circular, dated October 20, 1926, NAI CCC/Dub City and Co Dec 1926, 1C-139-31.
72. They were Fiona Plunkett, Roisin O'Doherty, Michael Price, and Donal O'Donoghue. See “Prisoners’ Notes,” An Phoblacht, November 5, 1926, 6.
73. MacEoin, Survivors, 157.
74. Political Prisoners’ Committee circular, dated October 20, 1926, NAI CCC/Dub City and Co Dec 1926, 1C-139-31.
75. A receipt for printing is contained in NAI CCC/Dub City and Co Dec 1926, 1C-139-31.
76. Report of Superintendent Peter Ennis, November 7, 1928, NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
77. The jury panel to which the first circulars was sent was dated October 25 1926, 5 months after the raid on the sub-sheriff's office. See the jury panel contained in NAI CCC/Dub City and Co Dec 1926, 1C-139-31.
78. Juries Act 1927, s 37 and s 38.
79. Ibid., s 50(3). The sub-section did not stipulate the amount to be paid but referred to payment of “the prescribed fee.” Section 18 of the Juries (Ireland) Act 1871, which s 50(3) replaced, specified a fee of 1 s.
80. Juries (Ireland) Act 1871, s 18.
81. Bowyer Bell, The Secret Army, 95.
82. Hawkins, William, A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown, Vol. 1 (London, 1739), 259Google Scholar.
83. Blackstone, William, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book IV (Dublin, 1770), 140Google Scholar.
84. Ibid.
85. Crosby, Kevin, “Before the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015: Juror Punishment in Nineteenth-Century and Twentieth-Century England,” Legal Studies 36 (2016): 179, 198CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
86. See, for example, “A Unique Charge,” The Gloucestershire Chronicle, March 6, 1920, 5; “Recorder and Henry Eighth: An Authority on ‘Embracery,’” The Courier and Advertiser, July 25, 1933, 5.
87. “Political Prisoners: Protest Meeting in Cork,” The Cork Examiner, June 23, 1928, 6.
88. “Demand for their Release,” The Cork Examiner, September 21, 1928, 2.
89. NAI CCC/Dub City and Co Dec 1926, 1C-139-31.
90. Ibid.
91. See, for example, NAI JUS/2007/56/072 (Circular received by a juror with an address at 5 Rhoda Villas, Sutton, County Dublin on November 26, 1927). See also NAI JUS/2007/56/181 (Letter from Senator Thomas Johnson to the Minister for Justice, April 22, 1931).
92. This tactic had been used in Ireland before. See Editorial, The Irish Times, August 7, 1902, 4, referring to non-recognition of the Petty Sessions Court at Templemore by a United Irish League Organiser. The IRA had a policy on non-recognition of the Free State courts that instructed its members not to engage with the them unless the offense was one for which the death penalty could be imposed, in which case they could instruct counsel. See UCDA P69/5(16). Some IRA members did not comply with the policy in the 1920s. See Hanley, The IRA, 37–38.
93. This procedure investigated if an accused was incapable of speaking or had decided not to plead. In the latter instance a not guilty plea was entered on behalf of the prisoner. See Duff, R. A., Answering for Crime: Responsibility and Liability in the Criminal Law (Oxford: Hart, 2007), 176Google Scholar. In Ireland, the requirement that a jury be sworn to determine this issue was removed by the Juries (Protection) Act 1929, s 6, with the function given to the trial judge. The 1929 Act was a temporary measure, the duration of which was extended until September 30, 1933 by the Juries (Protection) Act 1931, s 1. The requirement for a jury determination in respect of a person standing mute was permanently removed by the Courts of Justice Act 1936, s 80.
95. “Circulars to Jurors,” The Irish Times, December 3, 1926, 3.
96. “Three Women: Carry on Conversation in Dock,” The Evening Herald, December 9, 1926, 1.
97. “Circulars to Jurors,” The Irish Times, December 10, 1926, 5.
98. Ibid.
99. “Tampering with Jurors,” The Northern Whig and Belfast Post, December 10, 1926, 3.
100. Ibid; and “Interference with Jurors,” The Cork Examiner, December 10, 1926, 7.
101. UCDA P106/1074(5). Letter from Niall O'Rahilly to Sighle Humphreys dated December 9, 1926.
102. UCDA P106/648/160.
103. “Treason Act Case,” The Irish Times, April 12, 1928, 11.
104. Ibid.
105. “Seized Documents: Alleged Conspiracy to Influence Jurors,” Sunday Independent, April 22, 1928, 1.
106. Ibid.
107. “Charge of ‘Embracery,’” The Times, April 24, 1928, 5. “Sasanach” is the Irish word for an English person. When used in the English langugage it can have derogatory connotations.
108. On the use of jury riders, see Coen, M. and Howlin, N., “The Jury Speaks: Jury Riders in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” American Journal of Legal History 58 (2018): 505CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
109. “Did Not Want Leniency,” Belfast Newsletter, May 7, 1928, 12.
110. Ibid.
111. “Sheila Humphries,” The Evening Herald, May 10, 1928, 6.
112. “Sent for Trial: Document addressed to Dublin Jurors,” The Cork Examiner, May 18, 1928, 5.
113. “Treason Act Charges,” The Irish Independent, May 18, 1928, 12.
114. Letter from Sighle Humphreys to Nell Humphreys dated May 18, 1928, UCDA P106/1079(2).
115. Letter from Sighle Humphreys to Nell Humphreys dated May 21, 1928, UCDA P106/1079(3).
116. Dáil Debates, June 7, 1928, vol. 24, col. 296.
117. This letter does not appear to have survived.
118. Letter from Minister James Fitzgerald-Kenney to Dick Humphreys, June 12, 1928, UCDA P106/1090.
119. Ibid.
120. Circular relating to the trial of Sighle Humphreys and four others dated June 1928, UCDA P106/1095.
121. “‘Mute of Malice,’” The Irish Times, June 23, 1928, 5.
122. Ibid.
123. Letter from Sighle Humphreys to Nell Humphreys, June 23, 1928, UCDA P106/1076.
124. Ibid.
125. Ibid.
126. Letter from Risteard Gascoigne to Sighle Humphreys, August 5, 1928, UCDA P106/1084(37).
127. Ibid.
128. See Dáil Debates, November 14, 1928, vol. 27, col. 8.
129. Ibid.
130. Circular relating to the trial of Sighle Humphreys. A note on the circular states that it was received by a juror living at 1 Florence Terrace, Leeson Park Avenue, Dublin, on October 14, 1928. NAI JUS/2007/56/72.
131. “Mute of Malice,” The Evening Herald, November 11, 1928, 1.
132. The Irish Times named him incorrectly as Robert Edward Mellon, while The Irish Independent and The Evening Herald said his name was Reuben E Mellon, the name that appears on the jury list contained in NAI CC/State Files Dublin City 1C-90-40. See “Mute of Malice: Girl who Refused to Recognise the Court,” The Irish Times, November 15, 1928, 11; “Conspiracy Charge,” The Irish Independent, November 15, 1928, 4; and “Mute of Malice,” The Evening Herald, November 14, 1928, 1.
133. See, for example, Valiulis, Maryann, “Neither Feminist nor Flapper: The Ecclesiastical Construction of the Ideal Irish Woman” in Chattel, Servant or Citizen: Women's Status in Church, State and Society, ed. O'Dowd, Mary and Wichert, Sabine (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1995), 168Google Scholar; Beaumont, Caitriona, “Women, Citizenship and Catholicism in the Irish Free State, 1922–1948,” Women's History Review 6 (1997): 563CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Valiulis, Maryann, “Virtuous Mothers and Dutiful Wives: The Politics of Sexuality in the Irish Free State,” in Gender and Power in Irish History, ed. Valiulis, Maryann (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2008), 100Google Scholar; and Valiulis, Maryann, The Making of Inequality in the Irish Free State, 1922–37; Women, Power and Gender Ideology (Dublin; Four Courts Press, 2019)Google Scholar.
134. Ryan, Louise, “‘Furies’ and ‘Die-hards’: Women and Irish Republicanism in the Early Twentieth Century,” Gender & History 11 (1999): 256, 257CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
135. Beaumont, “Women, Citizenship and Catholicism,” 570.
136. See, for example, “Irish Republican Woman Charged: Methods of Intimidating Jurors,” The Manchester Guardian, April 23, 1928, 5; “Scene in Court: Judge Rebukes Woman,” Birmingham Gazette, April 12, 1928, 4; “Noisy Scene in Court: Judge Rebukes Woman Demonstrator,” The Aberdeen Press and Journal, April 12, 1928; “Woman Charged with ‘Embracery’: Alleged Letters to Jurors,” The Manchester Guardian, May 18, 1928, 14.
137. “Picturesquely-Named Crimes,” The Daily Mail Atlantic Edition, June 15, 1928, 14.
138. “‘Ghosts’ Circular to Jurors,” The Morning Post, October 24, 1928, 12.
139. Miller, Kerby, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 61Google Scholar. See also Gibbons, Stephen, Captain Rock, Night Errant: The Threatening Letters of Pre-Famine Ireland, 1801–1845 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2004)Google Scholar.
140. Ní Bheacháin, “Seeing Ghosts,” 39.
141. Material bearing the term “Ghosts” was not confined to illegal communications with jurors but included communications sent to members of the Garda and the army who were urged to switch their allegiance from the government. See NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
142. Letter from the Crime and Security division of An Garda Síochána to the Secretary of the Department of Justice, August 23, 1929, NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
143. See, for example, NAI JUS 2008/117/41, containing circulars addressed to jurors, distributed in Drogheda in July 1934.
144. Matthews, Dissidents, 248.
145. Dáil Debates, June 7, 1928, vol. 24, col. 295.
146. “Untried Prisoners,” The Irish Independent, October 23, 1928, 6.
147. “Sentences on Girls,” An Phoblacht, December 17, 1926, 1.
148. “War on Women,” An Phoblacht, March 9, 1929, 1.
149. Report of Superintendent Peter Ennis, September 2, 1929, NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
150. See, for example, several Garda reports contained in NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
151. Letter from the Crime and Security division of An Garda Síochána to the Secretary of the Department of Justice, August 23, 1929, NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
152. Logan, Anne, Feminism and Criminal Justice: A Historical Perspective (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
153. See Coen and Howlin, “The Jury Speaks,” 526–28.
154. “Treason and ‘Treason Acts,’” An Phoblacht, November 5, 1926, 3.
155. UCDA P106/67(4).
156. Hanley points out that Cumann na mBan had significant disagreements with the IRA “on several occasions.” Hanley, The IRA, 97.
157. See UCDA P106/67(2).
158. See, for example, “Dublin Woman in Dock – Campaign against Foreign Courts,” An Phoblacht, April 28, 1928, 1; and “England's Latest Victim: Sheila Humphreys Returned for Trial,” An Phoblacht, May 26, 1928, 1.
159. See O'Longaigh, Emergency Law, 90.
160. NLI LO P 114(93).
161. NLI CBF LO LB 161 (77).
162. NLI MS 47,642/34.
163. Memorandum bearing a date stamp for May 17, 1929, NAI S/5864A.
164. Garda Síochána (Metropolitan Division) Report, August 22, 1929, NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
165. Ibid.
166. Letter from the Attorney General to the Chief State Solicitor, October 3, 1929, NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
167. Detective Branch Report, December 6, 1929, NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
168. Dáil Debates, May 8, 1929, vol. 29, cols. 1631–32.
169. Ibid., col. 1635.
170. The Speaker of Dáil Eireann is referred to by the Irish title Ceann Comhairle.
171. Dáil Debates, May 8, 1929, vol. 29, col. 1636.
172. Iris Oifigiúil, August 6, 1929,1042.
173. Juries Protection Act 1929 Act, s 5(1).
174. Ibid., s 9(1).
175. Ibid., s 4(d).
176. Ibid., s 3(2).
177. Ibid., s 11.
178. Juries (Protection) Act 1929 Act, s 13(3).
179. Juries (Protection) Act 1931, s 1.The 1931 Act was signed into law on July 8, 1931. See Iris Oifigiúil, July 14, 1931, 723.
180. UCDA P106/911. See also entries for March 29 and April 1.
181. Report of Superintendent Peter Ennis, May 1, 1931, NAI JUS 2007/56/181.
182. Letter from Mr. F. G. Deverill to the Department of Justice, April 28, 1931, NAI S/5864A.
183. Letter from Minister James Fitzgerald-Kenney to Archbishop Byrne, June 17, 1929, Byrne Papers (Dublin Diocesan Archives), Box 467, Government (2).
184. Memorandum Regarding the Activities of Certain Organisations, NAI S/5864B, 5.
185. Ibid., 2.
186. Ibid., 10.
187. Ibid., 11.
188. Ibid.
189. Davis, Fergal, The History and Development of the Special Criminal Court, 1922–2005 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 41Google Scholar.
190. Public Safety Act 1928, s 1.
191. Hogan, Gerard, The Origins of the Irish Constitution, 1928–1941 (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2012), 9Google Scholar.
192. In contrast to the 1937 Constitution of Ireland, the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State could be amended by ordinary legislation. Although Article 50 stated that amendment by ordinary legislation could only occur in the first 8 years of the constitution's existence, this period was extended for a further 8 years by the Constitution (Amendment No 16) Act 1929. See Hogan, Gerard, “A Desert Island Case set in the Silver Sea: The State (Ryan) v Lennon (1934),” in Leading Cases of the Twentieth Century, ed. O'Dell, Eoin (Dublin: Round Hall Sweet and Maxwell, 2000), 80Google Scholar.
193. Para 4(2) of Article 2A of the Irish Free State Constitution, as inserted by s 1 of the Constitution (Amendment No 17) Act 1931.
194. Irish Free State Constitution, Para 7(1) of Article 2A.
195. Ibid., Para 6(5) of Article 2A.
196. Ibid., Appendix to Article 2A.
197. Dáil Debates, October 14, 1931, vol. 40, col. 41. The speaker was the President of the Executive Council, W. T. Cosgrave.
198. Ibid., col. 37.
199. See, for example, “The Men of Tipperary: Right to Drill and Arm Vindicated” (dated March 26, 1931) and “Well Done Jurors!” (dated July 1931), NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
200. Iris Oifigiúil, October 20, 1931, 912.
201. Constitution (Declaration of Unlawful Associations) Order, 1931 (SI No 73/1931).
202. Murray, Patrick, Oracles of God: The Roman Catholic Church and Irish Politics, 1922–37 (Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2000), 325Google Scholar.
203. “Bishops’ Joint Pastoral,” The Limerick Leader, October 19, 1931, 3.
204. Ibid.
205. Pastoral Letter issued by the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland, October 22, 1922, available at http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/content/293/pdf/293.pdf (accessed April 10, 2020).
206. “To Go Before Tribunal,” The Irish Press, December 21, 1931, 1.
207. “Bishops’ Joint Pastoral,” The Limerick Leader, October 19, 1931, 3.
208. On Sighle Humphreys’ involvement in Saor Éire, see Kyte, Elizabeth, “Sighle Humphreys: A Case Study in Irish Socialist Feminism, 1920s–1930s,” Saothar 36 (2011): 27, 29–31Google Scholar.
209. “Women's Speeches from the Dock,” Irish Independent, January 16, 1932, 2.
210. Ibid.
211. See, for example, “Banned Organisations,” Edinburgh Evening News, January 16, 1932, 7; and “‘Carry on the Farce’: Woman's Retort to Irish Military Tribunal,” Sheffield Daily Telegraph, January 16, 1932, 8.
212. Circular relating to the trial of Patrick Fleming and five others, dated November 13, 1933, UCDA P106/1151(1); and circular relating to the trial of Donal O'Connor and Thomas Molloy, dated January 18, 1933, NAI JUS/2007/56/181.
213. Circular relating to the trial of Thomas Grogan and six others, dated June 29, 1934, NAI JUS 2008/117/41.
214. See Matthews, Dissidents, 230–56.
215. Constitution (Amendment No. 22) Act 1933. For a detailed account of the relationship between the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Irish Free State, see Mohr, Thomas, Guardian of the Treaty: The Privy Council Appeal and Irish Sovereignty (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2016)Google Scholar.
216. Constitution (Removal of Oath) Act 1933.
217. Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936.
218. Matthews, Dissidents, 250.
219. Hanley, The IRA, 142–44; O'Longaigh, Emergency Law, 176–77; and O'Halpin, Defending Ireland, 121–29 and 200–201.
220. Article 38.3.1° of the Constitution of Ireland.
221. See, for example, the letter of John J Keenan, State Solicitor for County Monaghan, dated June 15, 1923, to the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, bemoaning the fact that jurors had lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. NAI S/3120. See also the comments of Gerald Fitzgibbon TD to similar effect in the Dáil. Fitzgibbon was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court the following year. Dáil Debates, July 2, 1923, vol. 3, col. 2578.
222. “The Treason Act: Effort to Intimidate Jurors,” The Irish Times, October 30, 1926, 4.
223. “Treason Act Charge: Accused Man Found Not Guilty,” The Irish Times, February 14, 1929, 13.
224. “Shot at Civic Guards: Accused Wicklow Man Acquitted,” The Irish Times, February 15, 1929, 7. See also “Posting Bills for IRA: Four Men Found Not Guilty,” The Irish Independent, November 9, 1929, 7.
225. “Treason Act Charges,” The Irish Times, July 11, 1931, 10.
226. See, for example, “Juries Could not Agree: An Extraordinary Impasse in Dublin Court,” The Evening Herald, February 10, 1928, 1.
227. See, for example, “Peter Ennis Fails Again! Jury Acquits Republican,” An Phoblacht, February 23, 1929, 1.
228. “Gunmen in The Free State: Mr Cosgrave on a Very Serious Problem,” The Times, March 5, 1929, 11.