PENAL LAW IN THE 18TH CENTURY: CHANGING THE PLACE AND ROLE OF CATHOLICS IN IRISH SOCIETY

Abstract

In the late XVII - early XVIII centuries, the English parliament passed a number of restrictive laws for Irish Catholics and dissenters. The penal laws were designed to maintain Protestant authority in Ireland and prevent rebellion against the English rule. The existence of these laws constantly formed relations between religious groups in England and Ireland, contributing to the emigration of many Irish Catholics in the XVIII-XIX centuries. Based on religious differences, penal laws contributed the position of descendants of English settlers, allowing Protestants to exercise control over property and trade. Nevertheless, the economic consequences of these laws had a beneficial effect on the position of most Catholics, who are middlemen and tenants of large estates. Many discriminatory laws were formally repealed in the late 1700s and early decades of the 1800s, but the effects of long-standing social divisions are still felt in Ireland. The absence of autonomy and power left to the Irish parliament, led by the English Lord-Lieutenant, stimulated rebellion throughout the eighteenth century. After the final emancipation of Catholics in 1829, a feature of the historiographical tradition of the 19th century was the exaggeration of the consequences of penal law and the extent of oppression of Catholics against the background of legal and political discrimination. The article discusses the speciics and features of the implementation of penal legislation in Ireland, as well as its impact on Irish society in the XVIII century. The author concludes that penal laws, the implementation of which was associated with a number of regional features, did not have exclusively negative consequences, bringing a tradition of loyalty and adaptation to Irish society, contributing to the formation of national consciousness based on Catholicism and traditional Gaelic culture.