Penal Laws

The "Penal Laws" or "Popery Laws" were established by the Irish Parliament against Roman Catholics in Ireland throughout the 1690s (until 1746). They included laws about religious practices as well as Catholic landownership.

The Plantation of Ulster in 1609 and the successive colonisation of the whole island of Ireland throughout the 17th century caused several conflicts between the native Irish and the dominating Protestant settlers. Two key events in this context which exacerbated the situation were the Irish rebellion (also called "Rising of 1641"), which was quelled by Oliver Cromwell in 1649 and the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

The Protestant Ascendancy, members of the Anglo-Irish Protestant elite who dominated in Parliament, were therefore still afraid of potential riots and consequently initiated laws to ensure the suppression of the Irish Catholics. Enforced under Queen Anne the laws challenged the agreements of the Treaty of Limerick which was signed by William of Orange (Otto 25).

At first Catholics were not allowed to carry any weapons and were excluded from the armed forces and from political positions; between 1728 and 1793 they were disenfranchised (i.e. they were not allowed to vote). They were also excluded from positions in public offices. Catholic children were not allowed to attend school. Furthermore Catholics were not allowed to own a horse worth more than five pounds (and Protestants were allowed to confiscate any horse that seemed to be more valuable than five pounds). Clergy had to register and there could only remain one clergyman for each community. Catholic bishops were expelled.

Much more effective were several laws concerning landownership. According to penal legislation Irish Catholics were not allowed to buy land or inherit land from Protestants nor were they allowed to hold long leases on land. Equal separation of inherited land amongst the sons was overruled in case the eldest conformed to the Anglican faith - then he received the whole property.

The Penal Laws also included non-members of the Church of Ireland, the so called Dissenters, which were in this case mostly Presbyterians. However, there were differences in the forms of discriminaton.

Consequences:

"The laws were of vital importance in broadening the differences between the Irish establishment and its opponents [...] Some of these laws, and notably those affecting property, were rigidly enforced, while others were unenforcable. Their main effects were to entrench the divide between Catholics and Protestants [...]" (Darby 1983, 15/16).

The Penal Laws resulted in a complete shift concerning property. Before 1641 more than half of Irish land belonged to the Irish Catholics, whereas in 1703 their share fell to 14 per cent (5 per cent in Ulster); in 1776 ninety-five per cent of Irish land was in the hands of Protestants (Otto 25).

As many Irish Catholics were too poor to buy land - regardless of the Penal Laws - the restrictions on landownership and voting rights did not affect this part of the population. Nevertheless the laws were seen as a "painful symbol" of the Catholics' defeat and proved the anti-Catholic atmosphere of that time (Otto 26).

Nevertheless, the Catholic Irish continued their religious practices non-publicly. This led to the formation of underground organisations (e.g. "hedge schools", schools for Catholics) which maintained Catholic worship and the Irish language (Darby 1983, 16).

The consequences of the Penal Laws and the anti-Catholic mood in Ireland can be seen throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. After the Independence of the Southern Irish Provinces in 1922, the Northern Provinces remained in the United Kingdom. The Northern Irish Conflict having its peak in the 1970s as this conflict emerges historically after the British settlement in Ireland: "Within several generations the broad outlines of the conflict had been established. The territory contained two groups who differed in political allegiance, religious practice and cultural values. One group believed that their land had been stolen, while the other was in a constant state of apprehension. Northern Ireland still suffers from the problems of rival ethnic groups living cheek by jowl and in suspicion of each other" (Darby 1995).

Relaxation:

As not only Catholics but also Protestants were successively aiming at a more independent Ireland from Britain and therefore seeking a certain cohesion between both sides the Penal Laws were abolished by the Roman Catholic Relief Act (1791), the Catholic Emancipation Act (1829), the Roman Catholic Charities Act (1832), and the Roman Catholic Relief Act (1926).[1]

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Sources:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/449591/Penal-Laws

Darby, John. "The Historical Background." Northern Ireland: The Background to the Conflict. Ed. John Darby. Belfast: Appletree Press, 1983, 13-31.

Darby, John. "Conflict in Northern Ireland: A Background Essay." Facets of the Conflict in Northern Ireland. Ed. Seamus Dunn. 1995. CAIN – Conflict Archive on the Internet, University of Ulster. 08 Nov 2009. <http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/facets.htm>

Kandel, Johannes. Der Nordirland-Konflikt: Von seinen historischen Wurzeln bis zur Gegenwart. Bonn: Dietz, 2005.

Otto, Frank. Der Nordirlandkonflikt: Ursprung, Verlauf, Perspektiven. Munich: C.H. Beck, 2005.