Mr. Goertz, a Luftwaffe officer, landed in Ireland without permission in 1940 and remained undetected for over a year. He was then arrested and interned for five years. In 1946 he was released and worked for a time as a secretary. The Minister for Justice issued orders in 1947 for Mr. Goetz’s arrest, detention and deportation back to Germany. Mr. Goertz argued that a person ordinarily resident in Ireland should be given three months notice of a proposed deportation.
The High Court found that the five-year period of detention could not be treated as a period of ordinary residence and refused to quash the deportation order. The Supreme Court upheld this finding.
