Petty Sessions Court
The Court House is still in the village between O'Sullivans and the Sheep's Head public houses. These courts were set up in the early 19th century before that the magistrates administered justice according to their whim frequently on their own. Fr. Collins Administrator of Skibbereen giving evidence to select committees of House of Lords and Commons in 1824 referred to 'presents' being given to the Magistrates of corn, cattle money and having their turf cut. The Government pressurised the Magistrates to hold the Petty Sessions in public with three or four sitting in March 1822. This was formalised under the Petty Sessions Act of 1827. The petty session's nearest modern equivalent is the District Court except that the Petty Sessions operated with the involvement of local prominent people with no legal qualifications. Under the Peace Preservation Act 1814 the resident magistrates appointed were generally strangers and therefore immune to pressures applied to local magistrates.
Read more about this topic: Modern History Of Durrus And District
Famous quotes containing the words petty and/or court:
“There be as many persons of a king, as there be petty constables in his kingdom. And so there are, or else he cannot be obeyed. But I never said that a king, and every one of his persons, are the same substance.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can’t go at dawn and not many places he can’t go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking—one sport you shouldn’t have to reserve a time and a court for.”
—Edward Hoagland (b. 1932)