Freemasons!

Cróga

Whats this about? Does this still apply?

Government of Ireland Act 1920


65.-(1)It is hereby declared that existing enactments relative to unlawful oaths or unlawful assemblies in Ireland do not apply to the meetings or proceedings of the Grand Lodge of and Accepted Masons of Ireland, or of any lodge or society recognised by that Grand Lodge.

(2) Neither the Parliament of Southern Ireland, nor the Parliament of Northern Ireland shall have power to abrogate or affect prejudicially any privilege of exemption of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons in Ireland, or any lodge or society recognised by that Grand Lodge which is enjoyed either by...

Jev/N

Sorry, I just had to post this :pac:

GerardKeating

Croga wrote: »

Whats this about? Does this still apply?

Did it even ever come into force ???

johnfás

It just appears to be a provision providing that Masonic Lodges and membership thereof is not unlawful. This is presumably because there is some other provision somewhere that might be used to suggest that the opposite is the case. It was probably introduced to the Bill by a private member of the Oireachtas.

There are lots of laws which don't directly relate to the national interest that have been passed by the Oireachtas over time. Many bodies have been established by way of Statute historically in order to give them the soundest standing in law - some Churches for instance have taken this route historically.

dermot_sheehan

According to irishstatutebook.ie it's still in force in the republic
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/isbc/bps1920.html

In the U.K. it was repealed on the 2/12/2009.

It was probably due to the fact that there were many statutes on the book at that time prohibiting the taking of unlawful oaths (Unlawful Oaths Act 1797) to surpress certain political organisations (such as the united irishmen)

Our man in Havana

johnfás wrote: »

It just appears to be a provision providing that Masonic Lodges and membership thereof is not unlawful. This is presumably because there is some other provision somewhere that might be used to suggest that the opposite is the case. It was probably introduced to the Bill by a private member of the Oireachtas.

There are lots of laws which don't directly relate to the national interest that have been passed by the Oireachtas over time. Many bodies have been established by way of Statute historically in order to give them the soundest standing in law - some Churches for instance have taken this route historically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Ireland_Act_1920

The act was made by the UK parliament.

TJM

All provisions of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 which remained in force as of 8 May 2007 were repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 2007. See s.3 and Schedule 2.