The exclusion of catholics from the legal profession in Ireland, 1537-1829

Between the Reformation and catholic emancipation a succession of statutory and other provisions was framed by the authorities in Dublin and London with the intention of enforcing religious conformity Persons who refused to conform were rendered liable to various disabilities and penalties of a severe nature. Discrimination became widespread in the first half of the eighteenth century with what were collectively known as the penal laws. These contained general provisions which touched all citizens in relation to many aspects of their lives, especially the holding of land. But from 1537 there were also specific measures aimed at particular groups, including the legal profession. These measures ensured that appointments to the bench could continue to be manipulated on the basis of loyalty to the established church. Long after the first relaxation of the penal laws, catholic lawyers who refused to conform were still excluded from the higher ranks of the legal profession. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which statutory and other requirements, introduced from 1537 onwards, were effective in excluding Roman Catholics from legal practice and in achieving outward religious conformity among lawyers between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries

Conformity · Emancipation · Legal profession · Loyalty · Political science · Sociology · Statutory law · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Law · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies

• The Cambridge History of Ireland

  Open Access•Brendan Smith, Jane Ohlmeyer et al.•Cambridge History of Ireland•2018

  Añadir item

• Lawyers and the law in later seventeenth-century Ireland

  Open Access•Toby Barnard, T C Barnard•Irish Historical Studies•1993

  Añadir item

• New light on Richard Hadsor, I

  Open Access•VICTOR TREADWELL•Irish Historical Studies•1997

  Añadir item

• The Language and Legitimation of Irish Moral Outrage

  Arthur E Mccullough•British Journal of Sociology•1989

  Añadir item

• The Royal Supremacy and Ecclesiastical Revolution, 1534–47

  G A Hayes‐McCoy, G A HAYES-MCCOY•Early Modern Ireland, 1534-1691•2009

  Añadir item

• Lawyers in Early Modern Europe and America

  Michael De L Landon, Wilfrid Prest•American Journal of Legal History•1983

  Añadir item

• The Inns of Court Under Elizabeth I and the Early Stuarts

  Robert Ashton, Wilfrid Prest et al.•The Economic History Review•1973

  Añadir item