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PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - LONG TITLE

An Act to make certain provision with respect to the maintenance of
public order and the prevention of disturbance of public meetings,
and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[23rd August 1951]
Notice of processions.

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 1

1.(1) Any person or persons intending to organise or form a public
procession (other than a public procession which is customarily held
along a particular route) shall, not less than [one hundred and
twenty] hours before the proposed time of commencement of the
procession, give written notice thereof, and of the route proposed
to be taken and of such proposed time, to a district inspector,
head constable or sergeant of the Royal Ulster Constabulary by
leaving the notice with him at the constabulary station nearest to
the proposed place of commencement of the procession.

(2) Any person organising or conducting or attempting to conduct [or
knowingly taking part in] a public procession

(a)in respect of which due notice has not been given under this
section; or

(b)otherwise than in accordance with such a notice;

(3) In this section the expression "public procession" does not
include a funeral [or a procession organised by or on behalf of,
and in furtherance of the lawful industrial objects of, a trade
union].

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 2
Powers for the preservation of public order in certain circumstances.

2.(1) If any officer or head constable of the Royal Ulster
Constabulary, having regard to the time or place at which and the
circumstances in which any public procession is taking place or is
intended to take place and to the route taken or proposed to be
taken by the procession, has reasonable grounds for apprehending that
the procession may occasion a breach of the peace or serious public
disorder, whether immediately or at any time thereafter, he may give
directions imposing upon the persons organising or taking part in
the procession such conditions as appear to him necessary for the
preservation of public order, including (but without prejudice to the
generality of the foregoing words) conditions prescribing the route
to be taken by the procession and conditions prohibiting the
procession from entering any place specified in the directions [and
it shall be the duty of such officer or head constable in
exercising his powers under this sub-section to have regard to the
time at which written notice of an intended procession is first
given under section 1 and to the desirability of not interfering
with a public procession customarily held along a particular route.]

[(2) If at any time the Minister of Home Affairs is of opinion in
consequence of information furnished to him by a member of the
Royal Ulster Constabulary not below the rank of superintendent or
for any other reason that

(a)the exercise of the powers conferred by the preceding sub-section
will not be sufficient to prevent serious public disorder being
occasioned by the holding of any public procession in any area; or

(b)the holding in any area or place of any public procession or
any open-air public meeting is likely to cause serious public
disorder or to cause undue demands to be made upon the police or
military forces; or

(c)the holding in any area or place of any public procession or
any open-air public meeting is likely to cause undue hardship to
persons working or carrying on business in that area or place;

(i)prohibiting, for such period not exceeding twelve months as may
be specified in the order, the holding in that area or place of
all public processions or open-air public meetings or of such
classes of public procession or open-air public meeting as may be
so specified;

(ii)permitting the holding in an area or place of a public
procession or open-air public meeting specified in the order and
prohibiting, for such period not exceeding one month as may be
specified in the order, the holding in that area or place of any
other public procession or public meeting or of any class of public
procession or public meeting specified in the order.]

(3) Any person who knowingly fails to comply with any directions
given or conditions imposed under this section, or organises or
assists in organising any public procession or meeting held or
intended to be held in contravention of an order made under this
section or incites any person to take part in such a procession or
meeting, shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

[(4) Any person who knowingly takes part in any public procession
or meeting held in contravention of an order under this section
shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.]

[(5) In this section

"area" means the whole of Northern Ireland or any part thereof;

"building" means a covered and enclosed structure of an immovable
nature;

"business" includes any trade or profession;

"open-air public meeting" means a public meeting held otherwise than
inside a building.

(6) This section shall not apply to a public meeting organised by
or on behalf of, and in furtherance of the lawful industrial
objects of, a trade union.][

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 2A
Taking part in a public procession as a member of an unregistered
band.

2A.(1) For the purposes of sub-section (2) the Minister of Home
Affairs may by order made subject to affirmative resolution provide
for the registration of bands subject to such requirements, if any,
as may be specified in the order, and any such order may exclude
from the operation of the order and of this section such bands or
bands of such descriptions as may be specified in the order.

(2) Without prejudice to his liability under any other enactment,
any person who, while an order under sub-section (1) is in force,
knowingly takes part in a public procession as a member of a band
which is required to be registered under the order but is not so
registered or which does not comply with any requirement imposed on
it as a condition of registration under the order shall be guilty
of an offence against this Act and be liable on summary conviction
to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine
not exceeding #100 or to both such imprisonment and such fine.

(3) In this section "band" means a group of two or more persons
who carry for the purpose of playing or sounding, or engage in the
playing or sounding of, musical or other instruments].

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 3
Provocative conduct.

3.(1) Any person who in any public place or at or in relation to
any public meeting or public procession uses threatening, abusive or
insulting words or behaviour or displays anything or does any act
or, being the owner or occupier of any lands or premises causes or
permits anything to be displayed or any act to be done thereon,
with intent to provoke a breach of the peace or whereby a breach
of the peace or public disorder is likely to be occasioned, whether
immediately or at any time thereafter, shall be guilty of an
offence against this Act.

(2) Where a person is convicted of an offence under the preceding
sub-section, any instrument or other thing in respect of which he
is so convicted shall by the conviction become forfeited to the
Crown.[

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 3A
Endeavours to break up public processions.

3A.(1) Any person who for the purpose of preventing or hindering
any lawful public procession or of annoying persons taking part in
or endeavouring to take part in any such procession hinders,
molests, obstructs or acts in a disorderly manner towards, or
behaves offensively and abusively towards, those persons or any of
them shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.

(2) If any member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary reasonably
suspects any person of committing or being about to commit or of
having committed an offence under sub-section (1) of this section he
may require that person to declare to him immediately his name and
address, and if that person refuses or fails so to declare his
name or address or gives a false name or address he shall be
guilty of an offence against this Act.][

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 3B
Obstructive sitting etc., in public places.

3B.(1) Any person who, by sitting, kneeling or lying down in a
public place, wilfully obstructs or seeks to obstruct traffic or
wilfully hinders, or seeks to hinder, any lawful activity, shall be
guilty of an offence against this Act.

(2) Sub-section (2) of section 3A of this Act shall apply to an
offence under sub-section (1) of this section as it applies to an
offence under sub-section (1) of that section.][

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 3C
Protection of public buildings and activities.

3C.(1) Any person who

(a)enters any public building as a trespasser; or

(b)not being engaged in the discharge of duties, or the performance
of obligations, connected with activities normally carried on in a
public building or in part of a public building, wilfully neglects
or fails to comply as soon as is practicable with a direction to
leave that building or that part being a direction given by

(i)a person authorised in writing by a body or authority owning, or
lawfully occupying or using, the building or any part of the
building to give such directions with respect to that building or
that part; or

(ii)a member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary at the request of any
person so authorised; or

(c)knowingly interferes with the carrying on of any lawful activity
in any public building;

Provided that nothing in paragraph (c) shall operate to penalise

(i)any lawful picketing carried on outside a public building; or

(ii)any other lawful act done;

(2) A member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, if so requested by
a person authorised to give directions for the purposes of paragraph
(b) of sub-section (1) of this section with respect to any building
or part of a building, may remove from that building or that part
any person who commits an offence under that paragraph in that
building or that part.

(3) A person authorised to give directions for the purposes of
paragraph (b) of sub-section (1) of this section with respect to
any building or part of a building shall, if so required by any
person to whom a direction is given under that paragraph to leave
that building or that part, produce his authorisation to give such
a direction.

(4) References in this section to a public building include
references to any building which is owned, occupied or used for any
purpose by or on behalf of a government department or a local or
public authority or for the purposes of any grant-aided school or
institution for further or higher education or which is occupied or
used for parliamentary, judicial or police purposes, to any part of
such a building and to any place or thing which is within the
curtilage of such a building and, for the purposes of this section,
any place which is

(a)part of the Stormont Estate within the meaning of the Stormont
Regulation and Government Property Act (Northern Ireland) 1933; or

(b)part of the demesne and other lands referred to in section 1 of
the Government Property (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 1955;

(5) For the purposes of sub-section (4) "local or public authority"
includes any local authority or any authority, committee or board
appointed wholly or partly by a local authority and any board,
commissioners or other body authorised to supply services under any
statutory provision whether of a general or special nature and any
other public authority, board, commissioners or body of any kind
constituted by or under any statutory provision, whether of a
general or special nature and in this sub-section "statutory
provision" has the meaning assigned to it by paragraph (f) of
section 1 of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954.]

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 4
Endeavours to break up public meetings.

4.(1) Any person who at a lawful public meeting acts in a
disorderly manner for the purpose of preventing the transaction of
the business for which the meeting was called together shall be
guilty of an offence against this Act.

(2) If any officer or constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary
reasonably suspects any person of committing an offence under this
section, he may if requested so to do by the chairman of the
meeting require that person to declare to him immediately his name
and address, and if that person refuses or fails so to declare his
name and address or gives a false name and address he shall be
guilty of an offence against this Act.

Subs.(3) rep. by SLR 1973

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 5
Penalties for offences against this Act, etc.

5.(1) Any person who commits an offence under section one or under
section three of this Act shall on summary conviction be liable to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding [six months] or to a fine
not exceeding [one hundred pounds] or to both such imprisonment and
such fine.

[(2) Any person who commits an offence under section 2, under
sub-section (1) of section 3A or under section 3C of this Act
shall be liable

(a)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
six months or to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or to
both such imprisonment and such fine; or

(b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding two years or to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds
or to both such imprisonment and such fine.

(2A) Any person who commits an offence under sub-section (1) of
section 3B of this Act shall be liable on summary conviction to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month or to a fine not
exceeding fifty pounds or to both such imprisonment and such fine.]

[(3) Any person who at any such meeting as is referred to in
paragraph 13 of the Ninth Schedule to the Electoral Law Act
(Northern Ireland), 1962, commits within the time respectively
specified in that paragraph an offence under sub-section (1) of the
last preceding section, shall be guilty of an illegal practice under
that paragraph.]

Subs.(4) rep. by 1962 c.14 (NI) s.131 sch.11

(5) Any person who at any meeting other than such as are referred
to in the last two preceding sub-sections commits an offence under
sub-section (1) of the last preceding section shall on summary
conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding [six
months] or to a fine of [one hundred pounds] or to both such
imprisonment and such fine.

[(6) Any person who commits an offence under sub-section (2) of
section 3A of this Act, or under that sub-section as applied by
sub-section (2) of section 3B of this Act, or under sub-section (2)
of section 4 of this Act shall be liable on summary conviction to
a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.]

(7) Any person who incites or procures or endeavours to persuade
others to commit an offence under this Act shall be guilty of a
like offence.

(8) An officer or constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary may
without warrant arrest any person reasonably suspected by him to be
committing or to have committed an offence against this Act.

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 6
Interpretation.

6.(1) In this Act the expression

"meeting" means a meeting held for the purpose of the discussion of
matters of public interest or for the purpose of the expression of
views on such matters;

"public meeting" includes any meeting in a public place and any
meeting which the public or any section thereof are permitted to
attend, whether on payment or otherwise;

"public place" includes any street, road or highway and any place
to which, for the time being, the public have or are permitted to
have access, whether on payment or otherwise;

"public procession" means a procession in a public place [whether or
not involving the use of vehicles or other conveyances].

Subs.(2)(3) rep. by 1954 c.33 (NI) s.48(1) sch.

PUBLIC ORDER ACT (NORTHERN IRELAND) 1951 - SECT 7
Short title.

7. This Act may be cited as the Public Order Act (Northern
Ireland), 1951.