<P> The draft version of the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State included a ban on capital punishment, but the Dáil did not adopt this, so the relevant British laws continued in force . The death penalty was retained because of the outbreak of the 1922--3 Civil War . As well as the existing British laws, the "Special Powers Act" (actually a resolution rather than an act) was passed by the Third Dáil on 26 September 1922 authorising military tribunals to impose death sentences on the anti-Treaty forces . During the Civil War the Free State government executed 81 captured anti-Treaty fighters by firing squad, as well as ordering extra-judicial killings . </P> <P> Between November 1923 and April 1954, there were a total of 35 executions in the state . In the 1920s, execution was relatively common for murderers . In the absence of a local executioner, the Irish government retained the pre-independence custom of having a British hangman come to Mountjoy Prison to perform executions . There was local opposition to this, and in the 1940s an Irishman sent to Britain as apprentice to Albert Pierrepoint was deemed to lack "the character to be an executioner". 55 men and women were also sentenced to death in that time period but ultimately received a reprieve . Thirteen were sentenced for murdering their newborns, and 42 for other types of murder . </P> <P> The only woman executed after independence was Annie Walsh in 1925 . She and her nephew blamed each other for the murder of her elderly husband . The press expected only the nephew to be found guilty, but both were . She was hanged aged 31 in spite of the jury recommending clemency . </P> <P> During the state of emergency in World War II, increased IRA activity led to six executions . Five were shot by firing squad after sentence by military tribunals under the Emergency Powers Act 1939 . Of these, Maurice O'Neill and Richard Goss had shot but not killed Gardaí: the only people executed by the state for a non-murder crime . Charlie Kerins, the IRA Chief of Staff, executed for murdering a Garda, was hanged rather than shot, making the point of treating him as a common criminal rather than a political crime . </P>

Who was the last woman to be hanged in ireland