Emergency Law in Ireland 1918-1925

This is an original and scholarly account of the operation of emergency law in Ireland in the years 1918-25. Arguably among the most turbulent in recent Irish history, the period 1918-1925 witnessed extraordinary political change and social unrest. The response of successive governments in three jurisdictions to the threat posed by politically motivated violence was to declare states of emergency, in which the authorities were granted wide-ranging powers of arrest; people were detained without trial; and suspected terrorists were tried before specially created courts. The author offers a detailed legal analysis of the effectiveness of emergency law in Ireland, and concludes with observations on the effectiveness of emergency laws generally in the face of terrorism.