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Thus the suspended sentence is seen to emerge as a judge-made practice in the disposal of
criminal cases in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in Ireland. It was not
initiated by any enabling provision in an Act of Parliament but was based upon the
recognition of an inherent power of the court to deal with the convicted person by
imposing a sentence of custody and then conditionally suspending it for a fixed period of
time.
Contemporary Use
The use of the suspended sentence is nowan established sentencing practice at all criminal
court levels in the Republic of Ireland. However, prior to 1920 according to Osborough
no bench of magistrates made a suspended sentence. The power to suspend sentences
appears to have been reserved only to courts which exercised jurisdiction to try cases on
indictment. After independence, the magistrates in Northern Ireland refused to assume
the power to suspend a sentence until 1968 following the enactment of the Treatment of
Offenders Act, notwithstanding the decision in R.v. Wightman (supra) where it was
declared a criminal court has an inherent power to record a sentence against a convicted
person and to bind him over on a recognisance to attend for judgment on notice.
However, the High Court andCountyCourts exercisingcriminal jurisdiction for the trial of
indictable offences did continue the practice on a common lawbasis until overtaken bythe
1968 legislation in that jurisdiction. Meanwhile in the Irish Free State, and the Republic of
Ireland which followed, the District Justices in the newly established District Court
commenced the use of the suspended sentence on a systematic basis as earlyas 1928 in the
disposal of indictable offences tried summarily and indeed in respect of summary offences
(1928, 62, Irish Law Times and Solicitors Journal 228). Specific reference was given to
this inherent jurisdiction in the 1948 District Court Rules which prohibit the issuance of a
warrant to activate a suspended sentence after six months from the date of the making of
the order. (District Court Rules 1948, rule 68(2). 65
Similarly, in the Circuit Criminal Court the general use of the disposition emerged quickly
in the 1920s. Osborough cites a number of cases in the Irish Law Times and Solicitors
65 People (A.G.)-v-MacDonald[1929] 63, ILTR 80. People (A.G.)-v-Whelan [1934] I.R. 518.
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