In the most general sense, penal is the body of laws that are enforced by the State in its own name and impose penalties for their violation, as opposed to civil law that seeks to redress private wrongs. This usage is synonymous with criminal law and is covered in that article.

More specifically, the Penal laws were a set of laws which punished nonconformism in the United Kingdom.

In Irish history

In Ireland these laws were also in force, where they had a pronounced effect, disenfranchising the majority of the Irish population who were Roman Catholic or Presbyterian in favour of the much smaller established Church of Ireland. Though the laws also affected the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, in the area of the island later to become Northern Ireland, its principal victim was the Roman Catholic Church, which was the religion of over three quarters of the people on the island, and the faith of the overwhelming majority of the 'mere' Irish (in contemporary English, 'mere' meant 'pure' or 'fully').

Among the discriminations faced by victims of the Penal Laws were:

• Exclusion from membership in either the Irish Parliament or the British Parliament;
• Exclusion from voting;
• Severe property restrictions, notably
  • the ability of any member of the Church of Ireland to seize property from any Catholic, without compensation;
  • the ability of any landlord to raise rents without restriction, and to evict at will.

The Penal Laws were gradually repealed at the end of the eighteenth century and beginning of the nineteenth century.

External Link:

• Penal Laws Website (http://www.law.umn.edu/irishlaw/intro.html)
• Sgáthán an Chrábhaidh by archbishop Florence Conry of Tuam. Includes contemporary advice offered to Catholics against the payment of recusancy fines for non-adherence to the Church of Ireland and the recognition of its bishops. (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/G208020/index.html)