The Penal Laws
The Penal Laws were a series of laws imposed by the English on the Irish to force them to accept the Christian faith as set out by them. Some of these laws were repealed with the passage of time. They were, according to Edmund Burke “a machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man.”
From 1607
From 1652
From 1695
From 1607
- Catholics were barred from holding public office or from serving in the army.
- Catholic churches were transferred to the Anglican Church of Ireland.
From 1652
- Catholics were barred from membership of the Irish Parliament.
- Most of the land of the major landholders was confiscated.
- The Catholic clergy were expelled from the country and liable to instant execution when found.
From 1695
- Catholics could not marry Protestants.
- Catholics were barred from holding firearms or serving in the armed forces.
- Catholics were barred from voting.
- Catholics were excluded from the legal profession and the judiciary.
- Catholics were barred from sending their children abroad for education.
- Catholics were barred from entering Trinity College.
- Land was to be divided between the owner’s sons on his death; if the eldest son became a Protestant he would become the one and only tenant.
- A Protestant converting to Catholicism would forfeit his property.
- Catholics could not buy land under a lease of more than 31 years.
- Catholics could not have custody of orphans.
- Catholics could not inherit Protestant land.
- They could not own a horse valued at over £5.
- Catholic priests had to register to preach.
- Catholic churches, if permitted, could be built only of wood, not stone, and away from main roads.
- Catholics could not teach either in public or in private.