I’m delighted to announce that my latest article, ‘To “Elude the Design and Intention” of the Penal Laws: Collusion and Discovery in Eighteenth-Century Ireland: A Case Study’, has been published as a chapter in Law and Religion in Ireland, 1700-1970 and will be available in September. You can order a copy here.

This article examines the means used by Irish Catholics to circumvent the Penal Laws when purchasing land, an act outlawed by the 1704 and 1709 Popery Acts. Through a case study of three Catholic brothers-in-law (Patrick Lattin, Richard Leigh and Michael Moore) who, in collusion with their Protestant brother-in-law (William Alcock), purchased various properties, the legal strategies, including trusts and statutes staple, employed to screen their illegal land acquisitions will be outlined, as will the arrangement of collusive discoveries, and the various tactics used to ensure Catholics retained possession of the property, or would receive financial compensation should the discovery prove successful.