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1986). Elements which were considered central to the successful introduction of
community service in England and Wales, such as readily available placements alongside
volunteer community workers were, in the main, absent in Ireland. However a
preponderance of other factors and similarities (Kotsonouris 1993), particularly the
influence of British penal practices, historical and contemporaneous, practically guaranteed
the introduction of the penalty modelled, however loosely, on the community service
introducedoriginallyin EnglandandWales in 1971. 22
Notwithstanding the legislative powers vested in the new Parliament in Dublin, following
the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the great bulk of legislative activityin the
post-1922 period centred around the establishment of the machinery of the newemergent
State, including the court system and procedures for executive government with Ministerial
responsibility such as the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1927. Except in respect of newly
enacted criminal laws directed towards the security of the State, the vast bulk of cases
processed in the criminal courts in the new Free State and later in the Republic of Ireland
(1949), ranging from murder to the most minor of offences, were tried under laws,
whether under legislation or at common law, as if no change had occurred at the
constitutional level on the establishment of the New State. Continuity in everyday life,
from the old regime to the new, was reflected in the laws, structure and practices of the
criminal justice system in the new State. Similarly, there was no departure of any
significance from the criminal sanctions used by the Courts between the old and new
regimes except for a brief period between 1920-1924 when Dail Courts established by the
revolutionarygovernment experimented with legal principles of the ancient Brehon System
and European civil lawsystems (Kotsonouris 1993). 23 A remarkable feature of this legacy
was that upon the establishment of the Irish Free State, the newState adopted the previous
criminal laws applicable to the jurisdiction, thereby ensuring continuity between the old
22 In the 19th Century the positivist ideas emerging from the physical sciences and the spirit of the age which were accompanied by the
sustained economic growth in the United Kingdom, which since the Act of Union of 1800 included the island of Ireland, a parallel
rationalisation of the Criminal Lawsubstantively and procedurally was brought about by a series of Criminal LawStatutes relating to
offences against the person, malicious damage to property, larcenyand the organisation of the Courts. Similarly, the penalties of fines
and imprisonment emerged during the 19th Century as the everyday penalties in the criminal courts in Ireland as a result of these
legislative measures. The influence of British penal measures on the Irish criminal justice system during this period is most obviously
explained by the centralised nature of law-making and administration based at Westminster during the period from the Act of Union
1800 to 1922 when the Oireachtas (Dail and Seanad) took up the function of law-making and the administration of the criminal justice
systemwas transferredto Dublin, save for those functions alreadydelegatedandperformedwithin Ireland.
23 This latter experiment was pragmaticallyabandonedon the foundation of the Irish Free State in favour of continuitywith the criminal justice systemidentical with the previous regime,
except for cosmetic aspects such as uniforms, emblems andlanguage.
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