An Act to empower the Lord Lieutenant or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland to apprehend and detain for a limited time persons suspected of being members of the Ribbon Society, or of being concerned in the commission of any crime or outrage under the direction or influence of said Ribbon Society in the county of Westmeath, or in certain adjoining portions of the county of Meath and the King's County; and to continue "The Peace Preservation (Ireland) Act, 1870."
The Protection of Life and Property in Certain Parts of Ireland Act 1871[1] or Protection of Life and Property (Ireland) Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 25) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was one element of the special emergency legislation that had been applied to Ireland by Westminster during the 19th and 20th centuries.[2] The Act was also known as the Westmeath Act[3]
The Act permitted the arrest and detention without trial of persons reasonably suspected of membership in a secret society and effectively suspended habeas corpus in Ireland.[2]
