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Penal Laws (Ireland)

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The Penal laws in Ireland refers to a series of laws imposed under British rule that sought to discriminate against the majority native Catholic population but also against Protestant dissenters in favour of the established Church of Ireland which recognised the English monarchy as its spiritual head.

Contents

Background

English attempts to govern Ireland had long been marked by the passing of various acts to secure its rule: in 1367, the Statutes of Kilkenny sought to prevent Norman intermingling with the native Irish, and Poynings Law of 1492 made the Irish parliament subservient to the English one. The English Reformation under Henry VIII brought new religious division to the already unhealthy relationship between Ireland and England. To enforce the Protestant Reformation in England, successive English monarchs enacted Penal Laws against the public practice of Catholicism.

In Ireland, these laws were put into force from the early 1600s and coincided with a determined effort to bring all of Ireland under English government for the first time (see Tudor re-conquest of Ireland) and the colonisation of the country in the Plantations of Ireland. The Penal legislation had a pronounced effect over two centuries, disenfranchising the majority of the native Irish population, who were Roman Catholic, and most Scottish settlers, who were Presbyterian in favour of the much smaller official Church of Ireland - initially mostly composed of English settlers. Though the laws affected adherents of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (who were concentrated in Ulster), its principal victims were members of the Roman Catholic Church, meaning over three quarters of the people on the island. The British had, intentionally or otherwise, punished the faith of the overwhelming majority of the "mere Irish" (in contemporary English, 'mere' meant 'pure' or 'fully').

Stuart and Cromwellian rule

Initially, English monarchs were cautious about applying the Penal Laws to Ireland because they needed the support of the Roman Catholic upper classes to put down Gaelic Irish rebellion in the Nine Years War (1594-1603). In addition, a significant section of the Roman Catholic aristocracy was Old English who had traditionally been loyal to English rule in Ireland. However, the ascent of James I to the English and Irish thrones in 1603 and eventual victory in the Nine Years War saw a series of laws put into force.

From 1607, Catholics were barred from holding public office or serving in the army. This meant that the Irish Privy Council and the Lords Justice - who, along with the Lord Deputy of Ireland constituted the government of the country, would in future be Protestants. In 1613, the constituencies of the Irish Parliament were altered to give Protestant settlers a majority in it. In addition, Roman Catholics were fined and had land confiscated for non-attendance at Protestant services. Roman Catholic churches were transferred to the Protestant Church of Ireland. Roman Catholic services, however, were generally tacitly tolerated as long as they were conducted in private. Roman Catholic priests were also tolerated, but Bishops (who were usually trained in Roman Catholic Europe) had to conceal their presence in the country.

Catholic resentment boiled over into the Irish Rebellion of 1641 which was marked by the massacre of Protestants and was eventually put down with great brutality in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649-53. After the Act of Settlement in 1652, Catholics were barred from membership in the Irish Parliament, had most of their lands confiscated and were even banned from living in towns for a short period. Catholic clergy were expelled from the country and liable to instant execution where found. Some of this legislation was rescinded after the English Restoration, but a comprehensive series of Penal Laws were passed after the Roman Catholic Jacobite defeat in the Williamite war in Ireland 1689-91.

Ascendancy rule 1691-1778

With the total defeat of Catholic attempts to regain power in Ireland, the new Protestant Ascendancy sought to ensure their perpetual dominance with the passing of a larger number of more restrictive anti-Catholic laws. Among the discriminations now faced by victims of the Penal Laws were:

Analysis

The position of the Protestant Ascendancy depended on their status as privileged minority and there was therefore no incentive for them to convert the rest of the population. There was little effort made to convert the population to Anglicanism and even though the Book of Common Prayer was first translated into Irish in 1608 no major attempt was made by Protestants to proseletyse in Irish until the early 19th century. However, some conversion from Roman Catholicism to Protestantism occurred sporadically, especially among the gentry. At times, one member of a Roman Catholic gentry family would convert to keep the family's lands intact. Some Protestants questioned the sincerity of such conversions.

While all these laws were obstensibly passed to displace Catholicism as the majority religion in Ireland, little effort was made to actively convert the population to Protestantism. The main effect of the Penal Laws was to disposess the native population, and while in 1641, Catholics owned 60% of land in Ireland by 1776 Catholic land ownership in Ireland stood at only 5%.

Historians disagree over whether the Penal Laws were a tool of political as opposed to religious repression. Some argue (for instance Eamonn O Ciardha) that they were intended make the native Catholic population powerless and to place landed and political power in Ireland in the hands of an English Protestant settler class. Others (for instance Sean Connolly) argue that it was intended to convert the Irish en masse to the Protestant faith and that it should be likened to the Irish Government's efforts to revive the Irish language since Irish

Gradual emancipation 1778-1869

The late eighteenth century saw the beginning of the repeal of the Penal Laws with the Catholic Relief Acts of 1778 and 1793. However, the long drawn-out pace of reform ensured that the question of religious discrimination dominated Irish politics and was a constant source of division. Opposition to Catholic emancipation ensured that relief when granted was often accompanied by concessions to Protestant conservatives such as in 1793 when relief (Catholics were now allowed hold land leases) was accompanied by a widely unpopular militia act which removed the ban on Catholics holding firearms to allow for their conscription into the milita but not their admittance into the officer ranks.

The slow pace of reform was one of the factors which led to many reformers despairing of peaceful change and the ignition of the failed 1798 rebellion. The subsequent passing of the Act of Union of 1801 was supposed to bring Catholic Emancipation, as power was taken from the hands of the Protestant Ascendancy, however the opposition of George III ensured no change would be forthcoming during his reign. With his death in 1820, Daniel O'Connell launched the Catholic Association and campaign for Catholic emancipation which was largely achieved in 1829. However, the obligation of Catholics to pay tithes to the Protestant Church remained and Catholic Emancipation was quickly followed by a period violent resistance to this obligation, the Tithe War.

 

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