Professor Ian MacBride of King’s College London delivered the 2015 Spring Discourse at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin, on 27 February.
His paper asked ‘Why the history of the penal laws has still to be written’.
Traditionally signed on the Treaty Stone at Limerick on 3rd October 1691, the treaty of Limerick provided: “The Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall enjoy such privileges in the exercise of their religion as are consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as they did enjoy in the reign of king Charles the second: and their majesties, as soon as their affairs will permit them to summon a parliament in this kingdom, will endeavour to procure the said Roman Catholics such farther security in that particular, as may preserve them from any disturbance upon the account of their said religion.” The breach of this Treaty institutionalised religious discrimination against Roman Catholics and Dissenters who would not conform to the uses of the established church