Report on Mandatory Sentences - Law Reform Commission

penalty or suspending it for an experimental period. 161
further action.
The motion does not appear to have instigated
2.61 In 1954, Michael Manning became the last man to be executed, when he was hanged for the
murder of Catherine Cooper. 162 Some months later, Brendan Behan’s “The Quare Fellow”, a play based
on Behan’s experience in Mountjoy Prison, opened at the Pike Theatre Club in Dublin. 163 The “quare
fellow” of the title is believed to represent a former prison mate of Behan’s, Bernard Kirwan, who was
awaiting execution for the murder of his brother. Subsequently, the play was performed at the Theatre
Royal Stratford East in 1956. The play has since been described as “an overwhelming indictment of
capital punishment” 164 and been credited with contributing to the international debate on capital
punishment. 165
2.62 In 1963, the Minister for Justice introduced in the Dáil a Criminal Justice Bill which proposed to
abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason, certain military offences and capital murders. 166 In
support of the Bill, the Minister referred to international research which had shown that the death penalty
was not a strong deterrent in respect of ordinary murder. He observed that many other European
countries had already abolished or virtually abolished the death penalty. He indicated that the
Government considered that it would be undesirable to retain the death penalty when it was so frequently
commuted. In this regard, he observed that there had not been an execution since the execution of
Michael Manning in 1954. He noted, however, that these considerations were “not fully valid” in respect
of certain political murders as politically motivated offenders would not be deterred by the prospect of
imprisonment. The death penalty would thus be retained for this category of murder. The Bill was
enacted as the Criminal Justice Act 1964.
2.63 Section 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 1964 abolished the death penalty for all crimes except
treason, 167 “capital murder”, and certain offences subject to military law. 168 Capital murder consisted of:
(i) murder of a member of An Garda Síochána acting in the course of his duty; (ii) murder of a prison
officer acting in the course of his duty; (iii) murder done in the course or furtherance of an offence under
section 6, 7, 8 or 9 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939 or in the course or furtherance of the
activities of an unlawful organisation within the meaning of section 18 (other than paragraph (f)) of that
Act; and (iv) murder, committed within the State for a political motive, of the head of a foreign State or of a
member of the government of, or a diplomatic officer of, a foreign State. In respect of non-capital murder,
section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act 1964 imposed a mandatory sentence of penal servitude for life.
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168
O’Malley “Sentencing Murderers: The Case for Relocating Discretion” (1995) 5(1) ICLJ 31 at 32. See: Seanad
Debate, Capital Punishment Motion, 30 May 1956, Vol 46.
O’Malley “Sentencing Murderers: The Case for Relocating Discretion” (1995) 5(1) ICLJ 31 at 32; McNally “Last
hanging in State 50 years ago today” Irish Times 20 April 2004; Mulqueen “An Irishman’s Diary” Irish Times 21
April 2009; Rice “Last man hanged in Ireland was drunk and mentally deficient” Sunday Tribune 18 April 2004;
“Murderer was the last man to be hanged here” Irish Independent 17 November 2009; and “Victim’s family
opposed death penalty” Irish News 29 November 2004.
“Borstal Boy” Irish Times 1 February 2004; “Remembering Behan is a quare delight” Irish Independent 10 July
2010; “A Quare end to hanging” Sunday Mirror 5 February 2006; and “Behan ‘ended hanging” The Mirror 6
February 2006.
Eyre and Wright Changing Stages: A View of British Theatre in the Twentieth Century (Bloomsbury, 2000).
Dáil Debates, Criminal Justice (No 2) Bill 1990, Second Stage, 1 June 1990, Vol 399, No 6, Col 1230; and
Osborough “Homicide and Criminal Responsibility (Northern Ireland) Bill 1963” (1965) NILQ 73 at 78. See
also: “A Quare end to hanging” Sunday Mirror 5 February 2006; and “Behan ‘ended hanging’” The Mirror 6
February 2006.
Dáil Debates, Criminal Justice Bill 1963, Second Stage, 6 November 1963, Vol 205, No 7, Col 997ff, Minister
for Justice, Charles Haughey TD.
See: section 1 of the Treason Act 1939.
Sections 124, 125, 127 and 128 of the Defence Act 1954.
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