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Republicans, Martyrology, and the Death Penalty in Britain and Ireland, 1939–1990

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2015

David Matthew Doyle
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Abstract

This article examines the relationship between politically motivated murder, martyrdom, and the death penalty in Britain and Ireland in the period from 1939 to 1990. First, it investigates the nexus between historical experience and memory, political martyrdom, and capital punishment as it applied to Irish Republicans in Britain during the Second World War. Secondly, it examines the use of extraordinary legal powers to impose the death penalty in the Irish state during the “Emergency,” and charts the processes through which the threat of capital punishment continued to be perceived as an essential instrument of security in both Irish jurisdictions in the postwar period. Thirdly, it evaluates the effectiveness of the death penalty in deterring politically motivated murder and explores the anomalous, paradoxical decision to abolish capital punishment at the height of subversive killing in Northern Ireland. The essay concludes that the national security issue and the potential martyrdom of Irish Republicans were pivotal factors in dissuading successive British governments from reintroducing the death penalty for politically motivated offenses in Britain and Northern Ireland.

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Articles
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 3 , July 2015 , pp. 703 - 722
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Copyright © The North American Conference on British Studies 2015 

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References

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65 I am much obliged to Angela Jones, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), for this information.

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78 Thank you to Angela Jones, PRONI, for this information.

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86 See Doyle and O'Donnell, “The Death Penalty in Post-Independence Ireland,” 83–89; Trial of Charles Kerins for Murder of Detective Sergeant O'Brien, DT S13567, NAI.

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140 TNA, CJ 4/2497, Capital Punishment, 29 March 1973.

141 Although the prospect of martyrdom was not a pivotal factor in the abolition of the death penalty in the Irish Republic, it did feature en passant in the parliamentary debates. See, for instance, Parliamentary Debates, Dail Éireann, vol. 399 (1990), no. 6, col. 1206, 1226; Parliamentary Debates, Seanad Éireann, vol. 96 (1981), no. 3, col. 238–39, 246–47; vol. 399, col. 1226, 1206; vol. 125 (1990), no. 11, col. 1308–9, 1319, 1351; vol. 125 (1990), no. 15, col. 1824.

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