My article on collusion in eighteenth-century Ireland has now been published in Law and Religion in Ireland, 1700-1970 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), edited by Kevin Costello and Niamh Howlin from UCD Sutherland School of Law.

The book (and article!) can be found on the Palgrave Macmillan website.

The 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 who, in collusion with their Protestant brother-in-law, 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.