When fire and sword had failed to suppress the Irish race new means to that
end must be found. So the fertile mind of the conqueror invented the Penal Laws.
The object of the Penal Laws was threefold ;
1) To deprive the Catholics of all civil life
2) To reduce them to a
condition of most extreme and brutal ignorance
3) To dissociate them from the
soil
The Penal Laws enacted or re-enacted in the new era succeeding the siege
of Limerick, when under the pledged faith and honour of the English crown, the
Irish Catholics were to be "protected in the free and unfettered exercise of
their religion", provided amongst other things that were forbidden :
Forbidden :
The Irish Catholic was forbidden the exercise of his religion,
... to receive education.
... to enter a profession.
... to hold public office.
... to engage in trade or commerce.
... to live in a corporate town or within five miles
thereof.
... to own a horse of greater value than five pounds.
... to purchase land.
... to lease land.
... to vote.
... to keep any arms for his protection.
... to hold a life annuity.
He could not be guardian to a child.
He could not attend catholic worship.
He could not himself educate his child.
The law soon came to
recognise an Irishman in Ireland only for the purpose of repressing him.
The
Volunteer movement in the 1780’s first began to take the edge off Protestant
prejudice. In the year 1793, an Act was passed relieving the Catholics of many
of their disabilities - in theory at least. Another thirty-six years were to
elapse before the next step was taken, under compulsion from the O’Connell
agitation, and the Act known as Catholic Emancipation made
law.