This unique work examines the role of the Irish House of Lords - Ireland's final court of appeal - from 1783 up to the Act of Union in 1800, placing the court in the context of the political and constitutional history of the time. Utilizing a broad range of sources, including rare law reports and archives, the book traces the importance of particular decisions of the Irish lords and what they tell us about penal laws and other phenomena of Irish life at that time. The book also examines the judges of the court, their individual contributions, and their judicial attitudes. The personalities and lives of some of the leading judges and others who were involved in key decisions in the 18th century bring an added dimension to the book. Some of the material discussed is relevant to a wider constitutional debate - one that stretches across the Atlantic to encompass the American colonies and deals with the ostensible supremacy of the English king or parliament in the 18th century. The ownership of land, the interests of Irish families, and the exploration of substantive legal issues in respect to 'leases for lives renewable forever' raises issues that might otherwise be overlooked by historians, not least in respect to leases for lives and the penal laws. Just before the union with Great Britain in 1801, when the Irish parliament ceased to exist, the jurisdiction of the Irish court of Exchequer Chamber was expanded, which presaged a similar development in England in 1830 and which does not seem to have been noted elsewhere. The book therefore helps to put the British legal system in a wider context and to point out the Irish influences upon it, which have tended to be ignored in the past. It is a nuanced and intriguing insight into some of the people who contributed centrally to the development of this distinctive Irish institution, and it is an exploration of the impact of some of the key judgments on the ways in which everyday life might be influenced in Ireland.

A collection of legal opinions, rulings, and judgments from the Irish courts in the 19th century, covering a range of civil and criminal cases. These reports provide valuable insight into the legal system of the time, and are an essential resource for legal historians and scholars of Irish law. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This comprehensive legal text offers a detailed analysis of key court cases in Ireland during the late nineteenth century. With its clear and concise writing, insightful commentary, and extensive citations, this book serves as an invaluable resource for legal scholars and practitioners alike. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

While Irish historical writing has long been in thrall to the perceived sectarian character of the legal system, this collection is the first to concentrate attention on the actual relationship that existed between the Irish population and the state under which they lived from the War of the Two Kings (1689-1691) to the Great Famine (1845-1849). Particular attention is paid to an understanding of the legal character of the state and the reach of the rule of law, with contributors addressing such themes as: how law was made and put into effect; how ordinary people experienced the law and social regulations; how Catholics related to the legal institutions of the Protestant confessional state; and how popular notions of legitimacy were developed. These themes contribute to a wider understanding of the nature of the state in the long eighteenth century and will therefore help to situate the study of Irish society into the mainstream of English and European social history.

The developments and achievements of the Irish administration, overshadowed by the more spectacular aspects of Irish history have received comparatively little attention. But Irish conditions in the 19th Century encouraged and compelled the state to exert itself on a more extensive front than in contemporary England and a number of government departments played a very active and often creative part in Irish social and economic life. In this work, originally published in 1964, and based on a wide range of printed and manuscript sources, the author shows how the administrative structure was drastically rationalised and modernised. The author is also interested both in the work the administration performed and the men who staffed it. The Irish administration during the century came into contact with many different aspects of Irish society.

The book describes how the courts dealt with murder, beginning with the coroner's inquest and ending with the conviction and hanging of the murderer. Between these two points the exquisite, almost balletic, procedure, of the courts and their officers is described, the Crown's case against the prisoner is analyzed, and the prisoner's defense is discussed. Magistrates, policemen, crown solicitors, witnesses, jurors, judges, and hangmen make their appearances. The prisoners, whose silence before and during their trials was their most notable characteristic in the nineteenth-century courts, make their apperances too, but not as prominently as their judicial custodians, until they finally and briefly come into the limelight on the gallows. An implicit theme of the book is the apparent contradiction between the apparent simplicity of the courts' procedures and the complexity of the rules that determined their operation. The book relies on a range of printed primary sources, such as newspapers, parliamentary papers, law reports, and legal textbooks, and on MS sources in the National Archives such as the Convict Reference Files. (Series: Irish Legal History Society)