The Special Criminal Court was first set up after the IRA launched a bombing campaign in Britain on the eve of World War II. Find out more here:
THE SPECIAL CRIMINAL Court was the focus of a lengthy exchange in the leaders’ debate earlier this week on RTÉ with Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald repeatedly asked to clarify her party’s position on it.Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar ruled out a coalition with the republican party because of its view on the court.
The act also made provision for the Special Criminal Court and it was first established in August 1939, just eight days before Germany invaded Poland and triggered World War II.The IRA’s campaign of attacks on the Northern Ireland border in the latter half of the 1950s prompted the brief reconvening of the court between 1961 and ’62.
It has now been in place for 48 years with its brief expanding to include organised crime in recent decades. The court’s jurisdiction was expanded to allow it to deal with organised crime due to fears of jury intimidation. The court can also take ‘inferences from silence’. Introduced in an Oireachtas amendment following the 1998 Omagh bombing, this power means that a negative inference can be taken from a suspect’s silence while being questioned by the gardaí over a charge that they are a member of an illegal organisation.Sinn Féin’s stance on the court has undergone a notable shift during this election campaign.
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