Debate on status of ‘treasonous’ republican paper

The government explored ways of refusing to grant the Sinn Féin publication An Phoblacht official newspaper status, and queried whether it was a “treasonable document”.

An internal government document from Jul 15, 1982, focuses on the application by An Phoblacht Republican News for registration as a newspaper under the Post Office Act 1908.

The letter, signed “PC”, begins by claiming there was a prime facie case for the minister not having the power to refuse the application but in the next paragraph “draws attention to section 10 of the of the Offences Against the State Act 1939” and how there had been no prosecution brought under that section.