5. c. 31) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 9 August 1920 to address the collapse of the British civilian administration in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence.
The Irish Republican Army (IRA), the military arm of the Dáil Éireann revolutionary government, was engaged in a guerilla campaign to destroy elements of British power, particularly burning down courthouses and attacking members of the RIC, Britain’s police force in the countryside.
To suppress the IRA "murderers," Major-General Hugh Tudor, commander of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and self-styled "Chief of Police", began supplementing that body with the employment of World War I veterans known as the "Black and Tans" because of the colour of their surplus World War I uniforms, and an additional temporary force of Auxiliaries.
With little discipline and utter indifference to the plight or moral indignation of the Irish population, these groups raided and burned villages, creameries, and farm buildings to intimidate supporters of the IRA.
The concern of all was that the civil courts were incapable of strictly administering justice to the revolutionaries because the juries largely consisted of Irish Catholics.
[7] After the 31 May meeting, Greenwood investigated the feasibility of imposing martial law in Ireland,[8] and raised martial law as the specific subject of a 23 July 1920 conference committee meeting of the Cabinet led by Prime Minister David Lloyd George to which the key members of the Dublin Castle administration were invited.
Mr. William E. Wylie, the law advisor at Dublin Castle, noted that the RIC was disintegrating through resignations brought on by terrorist attacks, and that with "regard to the Civil Courts, the entire administration of the Imperial Government had ceased.
"[11] Lloyd George closed the discussion directing the Dublin Castle participants to provide final proposals for enforcement of the laws.
Although there was no evidence as to the specific killer, on 28 September 1920 Dublin Castle elected to try him under the ROIA for "Offenses ... of such a character that they cannot adequately be dealt with by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction."
[17] The formal order convening the general court-martial was issued on 15 October 1920,[18] charging Barry with three counts of first degree murder relating to the three dead soldiers.
The republican press responded with scathing condemnation of the pending execution of a mere "boy" referred to as "Master Kevin Barry".
Notwithstanding intimidation, at 7:45 a.m., a contingent of the Cumann na mBan, the women's auxiliary of the IRA, marched up in uniform and knelt in a line outside the prison to conduct prayers.
"[30] Father McMahon agreed that “[h]e was as brave as a lion, and died as holy as a saint,” and added, "He must have passed straight into Heaven as a reward for his perfect resignation to death, and his acceptance of God’s Divine Will.
[32]In contrast, Dublin Castle issued no press release or explanation of the rationale for the sentence, thus ceding a complete propaganda victory to the Irish republican cause.
The only statement from Dublin Castle was the posting of the following notice on the prison gate, shortly after 8:00 a.m.: The sentence of the law passed on Kevin Barry, found guilty of murder, was carried into execution at 8 a.m. to-day.
This made it more difficult for IRA soldiers to continue openly working day jobs while carrying on part-time guerrilla activities.
Volunteers from IRA units were organized into elite, full-time, mobile flying columns of around 25 men who would live off the land and on the run.
These flying columns proved to be more suited to ambushes of patrols and convoys and other targets of opportunity, rather than attacks on barracks which had become better defended.
[35] In a crucial judgement, R (Egan) v Macready,[36] the Irish courts ruled that the Act did not give power to impose the death penalty.