Public Safety Act, 1927

Prohibition of importation of certain newspapers, etc.

11.—(1) If in the opinion of the Executive Council any issue of a periodical printed or published outside Saorstát Eireann contains any seditious libel or any statement inciting or calculated to incite, encourage, or lead to the commission of any of the offences mentioned in Part I of the Schedule to this Act or any offence of a seditious or treasonable nature or any statement by or on behalf of or to emanating from or purporting to be made by or on behalf of or to emanate from an unlawful association or any statement aiding or abetting or calculated to aid or abet an unlawful association, the Executive Council may by order (in this section referred to as a prohibition order) prohibit the importation of that issue and all future issues of such periodical so long as such order remains in force.

(2) Every prohibition order shall remain in force until revoked by order of the Executive Council.

(3) Every prohibition order and every order revoking a prohibition order shall be published in the Iris Oifigiúil as soon as conveniently may be after it is made.

(4) It shall be lawful for officers of customs and excise to arrest without warrant any person found importing any issue or copy of a periodical the importation of which is prohibited by a prohibition order and all such officers shall have the like powers in relation to a periodical in respect of which a prohibition order has been made and is in force and in relation to every issue and copy of such periodical as such officers have by law in relation to other articles the import of which is prohibited or restricted by law.

(5) Section 16 of the Post Office Act, 1908 and regulations made thereunder shall apply to a periodical in respect of which a prohibition order has been made and is in force and to every issue and copy of such periodical as fully as they apply to the documents mentioned in the said section.

(6) Every person who imports any issue or copy of a periodical printed or published outside Saorstát Eireann in contravention of a prohibition order then in force or distributes, sells, or offers or exposes for sale any issue or copy of any such periodical imported in contravention of such order shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or, at the discretion of the Court, to imprisonment with or without hard labour for any term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and such imprisonment, and also in any case to forfeiture of every copy of such periodical in his possession.

(7) Any officer or member of the Gárda Síochána may arrest without warrant any person found importing any issue or copy of a periodical the importation of which is prohibited by a prohibition order.