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Journal for the period which saw the introduction of the practice in that jurisdiction
(Osborough 1982:228). Moreover, military courts in the 1920s in the Irish Free State
utilised the suspension of custodial sentences, although the Attorney General of the time
did express concerns about its use (Campbell 1994). The suspension of a sentence in
Ireland relates solely to the suspension of a custodial sentence of penal servitude,
imprisonment or detention, although legislation contemplated in 1967 (Criminal Justice Bill
1967 Section 50) sought to grant to the courts also the power to suspend the sentence of a
fine in addition to that of imprisonment. While the Criminal Justice Bill 1967 failed in its
passage through the Oireachtas, 66
it is instructive to the reader as one source of official
thinkingon the sanction andrelatedmatters which will be discussedlater. 67
A standard condition of any suspended sentence is that the offender does not re-offend
and will keep the peace during the operative period. On this obligation O’Siochian
(1977:27) writes that there is “a complete discharge” at the end of the specified period if
the recognisance is kept. However, one must read O’Siochain’s phrase “complete
discharge” as having application to the penalty only. The phrase “complete discharge”
should not be equated with either a conditional or unconditional discharge provided for
under Section 1(1)(a) or (b) of the Probation of Offenders Act 1907 as the conviction is
clearly recorded in the case of a suspended sentence and endures as a record of previous
convictions while a discharge under Section 1(1) of the Probation of Offenders Act 1907
does not have the effect of recording a conviction. Put simply, if a person is given a
suspended sentence and is not called up for sentence for breach of his/her recognisance to
keep the peace and to abide by any conditions imposed, s/he is deemed to have “served
the sentence” and would not be amenable to anyfurther sanction in respect of the original
offence. 68
While the status of the suspended sentence (Whitaker 1985) may have obscure origins, the
66 The Criminal Justice Bill 1967 failed to be implemented into lawdue to the dissolution of the Dail in June 1969 when the Bill was last at committee stage on the 7th May, 1969. The
provision which sought to place the suspendedsentence on astatutoryfootingwas containedin the Miscellaneous Provisions Section of the Bill
67 The newIrish statutory suspended sentence will be discussed fully in Chapter 7. For the present this chapter surveys the emergence of the suspended sentence as a common law
disposition which endures alongside the newstatutorypower to suspendsentences.
68 O’Malley(2006) posits the suspended sentence as a real sentence not onlyfor the stigma attached to the recipient of a custodial sentence but he also argues
that the period of suspension is a punitive element to be served out bythe convicted person. A conditional or unconditional discharge under Section 1(1) of
the Probation of Offenders Act 1907 does not carryeither the stigma of a custodial sentence nor the punitiveness of enduring the risk of custodyduring the
periodof suspension.
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