Our Legal Heritage

Photo credit: Steve Ford Elliott, CC BY 2.0 The native system of law in Ireland, Brehon law, was first written down in the 7th century and survived until the 17th century. The law was administered by Brehons, and Redwood Castle in Tipperary (pictured) is said to have been where the MacAodhagáin cla

The first two Irish penal laws of 1695, for disarming papists and prohibiting ‘foreign education’, were acts which propagated the repression of Catholicism in Ireland.

Anybody who has arrived at a “24-hour” supermarket in Northern Ireland after 6pm on a Sunday will suspect that the closed doors have something to do with observing the Sabbath in Christian tradition. What you might not know is that this rule has its origins in the Sunday Observance Act 1695, pa

Pictured: Painting of Alice Kyteler by Paddy Shaw, which was gifted to the Kyteler’s Inn, Kilkenny. Dame Alice Kyteler was the first woman to be condemned for witchcraft in Ireland, having been tried for seven charges by the Bishop of Ossory, Richard de Ledrede in 1324.