The suggestion from the new Ulster Unionist Party leader, Jon Burrows, that the Irish Government should apologise for refusing to extradite terrorist suspects during the Troubles has been rejected out of hand by the Taoiseach and by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. But perhaps Burrows has a point.

It is undeniable that for almost two decades known IRA killers were given immunity from extradition by the courts in the Republic. This allowed them to continue their depredations on the Northern side of the border, safe in the knowledge that as long as they made it back to the southern side they would not be handed back to face justice.

The rationale was a decision by the Supreme Court that the IRA activities amounted to a “political offence”, as described in the 1965 Extradition Act. This state of affairs infuriated British authorities, but what is not as widely known is that the Irish definition of a “political offence” was hotly contested by some members of the Supreme Court.

The court’s approach to the issue is detailed in a book by the editor of The Irish Times, Ruadhán Mac Cormaic, The Supreme Court. While a majority on the court, led by Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh and Brian Walsh, were adamant that the “political offence” claim was valid for violent offences, it was regularly contested by other members of the court.

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