Treason Act (Ireland) 1537 Treason Act (Ireland) 1537 The Treason Act (Ireland) 1537 (28 Hen 8 c. 7, long title "An Act of Slander") is an Act of the former Parliament of Ireland which adds several offences to the law of treason in Ireland. It was repealed in the Republic of Ireland in 1962 (but was obsolete well before then). The Act makes the following conduct treason: The penalty for treason was death until 1998, when it was reduced to imprisonment for life or a lesser term. During the debate on the abolition of the death penalty, the Earl of Onslow said: Section I
Treason the death penalty for murder in 1965 an execution for treason was unlikely to have been carried out. Treason laws were used against Irish insurgents before Irish independence. However, members of the Provisional IRA and other militant republican groups were not prosecuted or executed for treason for levying war against the British government during the Troubles. They, along with members of loyalist paramilitary groups, were jailed for murder, violent crimes or terrorist offences. William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") was the last person to be put to death for treason, in 1946. (On the following day Theodore Schurch was executed for treachery,