Penal Laws (Ireland) - Final Repeal of Remaining Penal Laws

Final Repeal of Remaining Penal Laws

Section 5(2) of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 repealed in Ireland 'any existing enactment by which any penalty, disadvantage, or disability is imposed on account of religious belief or on a member of any religious order'.

As a result, in tandem with Section 37(1), Roman Catholics became eligible to occupy the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the British monarch's representative in Ireland. Within months of this legislation passing, Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent became in April 1921 the first Roman Catholic Lord Lieutenant of Ireland since the penal laws forbade such appointments in 1685. With the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 and the altered constitutional relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom, FitzAlan was also the last Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

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