The Roman Catholic bishops issued a pastoral letter declaring that the Irish Republican Army and Saor Éire, “sinful and irreligious and no Catholic can lawfully be a member of them.” The excommunication order was extended to members of all organisations outlawed under the ‘Public Safety Act’.

The military tribunal created under the ‘Public Safety Act’ was established. The Government declared 12 organisations including Cummann na mBan, Friends of Soviet Russia, the Irish Labour Assembly, the Workers’ Revolutionary Party, the Irish Working Farmers’ Committee and the Women’s Dissent League illegal.