Extraordinary Courts

Abstract

While governments attributed the retention of capital punishment to the threat posed by the IRA, simultaneously they railed at the ineffectiveness of the ordinary courts. The jury had long been vulnerable to outside influences, whether this involved its packing with members supportive of the authorities or its intimidation by subversive elements. A complicating factor, especially in political crimes, was sympathy for perpetrators which could translate into a reluctance to convict. Sometimes the state dispensed with judges and juries and set up special tribunals, staffed initially by army officers, to ensure that prosecutions were secured, and enemies dispatched. The work of these extraordinary courts—the military courts, the Special Criminal Court, and the Special Powers Tribunal—is the focus of this chapter. The role of Seán MacBride and the cases of Seán McCaughey, George Plant, and Patrick McGrath, among others, are discussed.