A History of the Penal Laws Against the Irish Catholics [1808]

Reprint of the First EditionEnhanced by its extensive quotation of source records, this book traces the history of laws against Catholics and religious non-conformists. It begins at the Treaty of Limerick (1689), which helped establish the Protestant Ascendency, and concludes with the Act of Union (1801), which merged the governments of Great Britain and Ireland to form the United Kingdom. Though certainly partisan, it is valuable for Parnell’s perspective and detailed knowledge of several crucial events of the 1780s and ’90s. Sir Henry Parnell [1776-1842], later Lord Congleton, was an Anglo-Irish Whig politician and treasury official sympathetic to the plight of Irish Catholics. A prolific author, he published works on penal law, economics and civil engineering. He also published a translation of the Psalms. He was the grand-uncle of the great Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell.226, xxii pp.