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Catholic Politics and the Death Penalty in Ireland

During its three year-term of office,  the First Inter-Party Government (1948 -- 1951) reviewed the execution of at least six convicted persons, two females and four males, Whatever else we imagine about the Thirteenth Dail, it remains to be said that only one petition of the six mentioned was denied. 3 Although  William  M. Gambon's application for clemency was denied, the central question grounding its propriety was answered. And even if the question arose under the most remarkable if casual and compromising circumstances,  the ensuing public exchange of views, although extraordinarily brief, was equally revealing. What these views mostly conveyed were the effects of a Church/State accommodation which successive governments equilibrated on a pragmatic basis between the dual needs of a Church/State that wanted to portray its Christian beneficence and its tacit sanction of the use of the death penalty as a means of social control 4.