Death penalty ban proposal resisted

Charles Haughey’s Government resisted attempts to bring in an EU-wide ban on the death penalty over fears the Troubles could spiral out of control.

State files detail the Cabinet’s opposition to the proposed abolition of capital punishment in the early 1980s.

In a Government memo, dated August 1982, then Foreign Affairs Minister Gerry Collins said Ireland’s retention of the death penalty had “created difficulties for us” internationally.