Repeal repressive laws

The most unwelcome initiation rite for any new Sinn Féin member in the 26 Counties, going back just a few years, was the inevitable arrest under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, "on suspicion of being a member of a proscribed organisation".

The Garda Special Branch availed of this catchall piece of repressive legislation to harass not just Sinn Féin members but anyone who showed an interest in issues deemed 'subversive', including campaigners against extradition and for the release of the Birmingham Six.

Stopping and searching, arrests and, of course, calling to homes and places or work, meant that many were dissuaded from political involvement, especially from involvement with Sinn Féin. The Branch had carte blanche to harass — there is even a famous photograph of Christy Moore being stopped and searched under this odious law.

Such abuses were ignored by establishment politicians, more concerned with keeping Sinn Féin down than with protecting civil rights. The Garda Complaints Board was an avenue explored in earnest only by the truly naïve — most republicans made their complaint in the knowledge that at least the body was obliged to produce a list of how many complaints it had received.

The success of the Peace Process has seen certain limits placed on Special Branch harassment of Sinn Féiners, but the legislation that allows such unaccountable policing remains in place.

On Wednesday, Sinn Féin's TDs published a bill to repeal the Offences Against the State Acts 1939-1998.

As Aengus Ó Snodaigh said in the Dáil this week, repressive legislation has no place in a democratic state in the 21st Century, certainly not in Ireland ten years into the Peace Process, seven years into a continuous cessation by the Irish Republican Army, and six years after the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement, which stipulates that these laws should be reviewed, reformed and dispensed with as circumstances permit.

With the review of the Agreement now taking place, Sinn Féin published its repeal Bill to remind the government of its responsibility and to urge members of the Opposition to confront their own creeping complacency by which they have allowed repressive emergency legislation to become part of the ordinary law.

Unfortunately, although there was a consensus position among the left opposition parties in the House that the Minister for Justice had failed to demonstrate that the draconian provisions are still necessary or effective, the government parties were supported by Fine Gael in the renewing of the emergency provisions for another year.

They yet again opted for automatic renewal, as though these emergency provisions are an acceptable element of ordinary law. This is a disgrace.