The Statute of Kilkenny

Lionel, Duke of Clarence, came back to Ireland in 1364, and again in 1367. On his third visit he summoned a Parliament at Kilkenny, and got it to pass the best known of the anti-Irish decrees, since known as the ” Statute of Kilkenny.”

Above: minstrels in Ireland

This famous statue shows the extent to which the settlers had been Gealicised, and the fear which the change instilled into the Government. Intermarriage, fosterage and gossipred with ” the Irish enemy ” were deemed treason, and so also was the adoption of the ” Brehon Law ” ; any of the King’s subjects who used the Irish language, assumed an Irish name, adopted Irish apparel, practised Irish customs—such as hurling, or riding without saddles—was to forfeit his property ; the Irish were not to pasture their cattle upon the ” English land” and severe penalties were provided for those English who should receive or entertain Irish bards, minstrels, or story-tellers.

The practice of ” coyne and livery ” was denounced as treason, the employment of Irish troops was prohibited, and private wars against the ” Irish enemies ” were to be made only with the sanction of Government.

 In every phase of life, barriers were to be erected between the two races in Ireland ; the process of assimilation was to be arrested ; the island was to be permanently divided into two hostile nations, between whom all intercourse, social, economic, intellectual (and even spiritual) was prohibited.