Anti-Catholic and anti-Presbyterian declarations among thousands of archaic laws to be axed by Dáil

THE DÁIL is to remove thousands of archaic by-laws and proclamations from its statute books over the coming weeks, including hundreds of anti-Catholic and anti-Presbyterian proclamations.

The Statute Law Revision Bill 2015 aims to remove thousands of instruments issued before January 1821 which apply to Ireland and remain on the statute books.

While only a handful of these proclamations are still in force, 5,782 by-laws and rules will be revoked and removed from the statute books by the Bill and 40 will be retained. 

The scrapped proclamations include those issued by the British Parliament and by the Protestant Ascendancy in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland during the time of the Penal Laws.

Examples include an October 1673 proclamation ordering the expulsion of Archbishop of Dublin Peter Talbot and "suppressing Catholic religious foundations". Other instruments demand the "prohibiting [of] assemblies of papists, Presbyterians, independents and others".

Peter Talbot was eventually banished from Ireland and lived most of the rest of his life in Paris, France. He returned to Ireland in poor health in 1678 after requesting the right to return to Ireland and "die in his own country". He was later arrested at his brother's home in Maynooth and died in prison two years later.

In November 1678, an order was passed "excluding Roman Catholics from forts, citadels and garrison towns" and less than a month later an order demanding sheriffs and British soldiers "disarm Roman Catholics". This had followed on from an earlier declaration "putting Irish out of port towns, walled towns and garrisons".

A November 1680 proclamation clearly outlines the extent of paranoia that existed around the issue of a possible Irish uprising, with a proclamation "promising pardons for information about the Popish plot". This referred to rumours that the Irish were planning a rebellion with the aid of French forces.

Free speech was also a target. 

In 1663, the extent of political repression saw a statute ordering the burning of copies of the book entitled The Murthers and Massacres Committed on the Irish which aimed to expose the atrocities carried out since 1641 against the Irish by English forces and their loyalists.

The Statute Law Revision Bill 2015 will pass through the Dáil and Seanad over the coming months.