The Treason Act (Ireland) 1537 (28 Hen 8 c. 7, long title ''An Act of

Slander Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

'') is an Act of the former

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland ( ga, Parlaimint na hÉireann) was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two cham ...

which adds several offences to the law of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It was repealed in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

in 1962 (but was obsolete well before then). The Act makes the following conduct treason: *to "maliciously wish, will, or desire, by words, or writing, or by craft, imagin (sic), invent, practise, or attempt, any bodily harm to be done or committed to the King's most royal person, the Queen", or their

heirs apparent An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...

; *or by such means to deprive them of the dignity, title or name of their royal estates; *to slanderously publish "by express writing, or words" that the Sovereign is a heretic, tyrant, schismatic, infidel or usurper of the Crown; or *to rebelliously "detain, keep or withhold" from the Sovereign his fortresses, ships, artillery, "or other munitions or fortifications of war", for longer than six days after being commanded to surrender them to the Sovereign. The penalty for treason was death until 1998, when it was reduced to

imprisonment for life Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes fo ...

or a lesser term. During the debate on the abolition of the death penalty, the 7th Earl of Onslow said:

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Section I of the Act reads as follows:

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;Primary: *

Citations

{{reflist Acts of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) 1537 in law Treason in Ireland Law of Northern Ireland 1537 in Ireland Repealed Irish legislation

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