Humanities & Social Sciences

Catholics and the law in Restoration Ireland

by Paul Smith

Description

In 1660 Charles II was restored to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland, but his hold on power was precarious. In particular, Ireland was fundamentally unstable - Catholics formed the majority of the population in a country where Protestantism was the established religion, a state of affairs unique in Europe. It was through the law that the restored Stuart monarchy governed its subjects and its colonial dependencies, and this book examines how Catholics engaged with and experienced English common law primarily through the eyes of Catholic clerics and Gaelic poets. It also examines how Catholics engaged with the Courts and the particular challenges they faced as lawyers. The book draws on an extensive body of primary source materials, including Irish-language poetry and little-used archival material relating to elite Catholic families.

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Reviews

In Restoration Ireland the law primarily served the interests of the English state and the Anglo-Protestant community and oppressed the majority Catholic population. Catholics and the law in Restoration Ireland examines how Catholics engaged with and experienced English common law primarily through the accounts of Catholic clerics and Gaelic poets. Analysing the letters of Oliver Plunkett and John Brenan, this book demonstrates the initial success and ultimate failure of their non-confrontational approach to legal and political processes. In contrast, the challenging stances of clerics like Nicholas French and John Lynch offer a new perspective on the wide variety of clerical engagement with the law. Drawing on the considerable corpus of primary sources, the book examines the often overlooked Irish-language literary material and considers the work of Dáibhí Ó Bruadair and his contemporaries to show how Gaelic Ireland deeply resented a hostile legal environment. It also explores Catholic landed families who recovered their estates in the 1663 Court of Claims and evidences the different approaches they adopted despite Protestant hostility, as well as illustrating how Catholic lawyers could survive, and even thrive, for a period. Catholics and the law in Restoration Ireland examines the many ways in which Irish Catholics experienced a legal system that proved fundamentally inimical to their interests.

Author Biography

Paul Smith studies Law and the legal profession in Early Modern Ireland.

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Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher Manchester University Press
  • Publication Date January 2025
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9781526176356 / 1526176351
  • Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
  • FormatPrint PDF
  • Pages280
  • ReadershipGeneral/trade; College/higher education; Professional and scholarly
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Dimensions234 X 156 mm
  • Biblio NotesDerived from Proprietary 5903
  • SeriesStudies in Early Modern Irish History
  • Reference Code16294

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