Swift to Wrath: Lynching in Global Historical Perspective

Informal Justice in Northern Ireland

InformalJusticeinNorthernIreland Rachel Monaghan A 19-year-old Westrock man had two legs broken in a so-called punishment attack at his home on Sunday evening. The incident happened shortly after 6.30pm when up to eight masked men forced their way into his home and beat and jumped on his legs. —“Westrock Man Attacked,” Andersonstown News, January 18, 1997 A man has been taken to hospital with gunshot wounds to the leg . . . the shooting happened shortly before 10.30 pm on Tuesday when a number of masked men forced their way into a house. The victim was taken into a yard to be shot. —“Man Shot in Leg,” News Letter, October 12, 2000 T he epigraphs to this chapter are illustrative of the informal justice that is meted out in Northern Ireland by both loyalist and republican paramilitary groups. Such activities are frequently referred to in the literature and the media as informal justice, popular justice, rough justice, vigilantism, paramilitary “punishments,” and the black criminal justice system.1 According to police statistics from the period between 1973 and the end of March 2010, 3,200 people had received what they term paramilitary-style shootings, and a further 2,562 people had become victims of paramilitary-style assaults between 1982 and the end of March 2010.2 Like most crime statistics, these figures signify only those recorded by the police and represent only the tip of the iceberg.3 This essay introduces the reader to the history and development of the informal justice system in working-class areas of Northern Ireland and offers an explanation of the rationale for paramilitary “punishments.” Informal Justice in Northern Ireland 117 The Origins of Informal Justice Historically, the origins of informal justice in Northern Ireland can be traced back to precolonial Ireland. In the period prior to colonization by the English in the sixteenth century,4 the Brehon laws—a set of customs, customary laws, and institutions advocating a predominately restorative justice approach—were to be found among the indigenous Irish population. These laws functioned as both a legal and a social code ensuring the harmony of the tribal communities of Ireland at this time. As Michael Davitt, the founder of the Irish National Land League explains, “The Brehons were the judges, next in importance to the chiefs, and their persons were sacred.”5 Central to the legitimacy and authority of the Brehon laws was their acceptance by the community, and this was dependent upon community cohesiveness. The hierarchical nature of the tribal communities meant that the status of both the victim and the offender was considered when sentences were handed down. Additionally, mitigating factors including the existence of provocation and the extent of the damage caused could also be considered. As Laurence Ginnell notes, “There were no prisons . . . and there were hardly any public servants who could correctly be called police or detectives. The people were their own police.”6 The most common punishment was a fine, with expulsion from the community reserved for perpetrators of “vile” crimes and habitual criminals.7 The Brehon laws sought to restore harmony within the community by reintegrating the offender and placating the victim or his or her immediate relatives with the payment of compensation. With the advent of colonization, the Brehon laws were suppressed and eventually disappeared around the early part of the seventeenth century, following the extension of English law to Ireland. In the subsequent two centuries, secret organizations and revolutionary agrarian societies developed alternative systems of justice in opposition to those of the British. According to Peter Alter, “The earliest important example of an agrarian secret society, which in many ways served as a model for all those that followed, was that of the Whiteboys, founded around 1760.”8 The Whiteboys, or Levellers, as they were often known, emerged in county Tipperary and then spread to other parts of southwest Ireland. They were concerned primarily with the plight of local tenants, farmworkers, and smallholders but would also oppose the payment of dues they considered “illegal ,” such as tithes for the Protestant Church. They would often appear in 118 Rachel Monaghan times of economic hardship and disappear once conditions improved. Then, when times were hard again, they would reappear under the same name or a new one. For example, in 1785 a society called the Rightboys was to be found in operation in southwest Ireland, with aims akin to those of the Whiteboys, and...