A proclamation of 1533 prohibiting criticism of the marriage of Henry VIII to his second wife, Anne Boleyn, after he divorced Catherine of Aragon, is one of almost 6,000 obsolete laws in Ireland that have finally been repealed.
A reward for the capture or death of the “arch traitor” Earl of Tyrone Hugh O’Neill is no longer available, after the 1601 proclamation offer was finally revoked more than 500 years later.
A 1618 proclamation ordering the Irish to depart with all their belongings from lands given to planters during the Plantation of Ulster has also been revoked, as part of an overhaul of Irish laws that began 13 years ago.
The English Parliament went through this process in 1969, removing many of the crucial acts of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth I in establishing the Anglican/Protestant Church of England, including the latter's Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity (almost entirely). The Penal Laws against Irish Catholics were repealed in 1920 with the Government of Ireland act (10 & 11 Geo. 5 c. 67) in section Section 5(2) which eliminated: 'any existing enactment by which any penalty,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'.
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