Irish Parliament facts for kids
The Irish Parliament (Irish: Parlaimint na hÉireann) was a legislative body created in 1297 to represent the Anglo-Irish in the English monarch's Lordship of Ireland. Like the English Parliament, it had its own Houses of Commons and Lords. When King Henry VIII of England elevated Ireland to a kingdom in 1541 through an act of the Irish Parliament, he invited the Gaelic Irish to sit in the England Parliament for the first time. However, later English monarchs' penal laws prevented Roman Catholics from entering Parliament. So, the native Irish after this were virtually unrepresented since they were almost all Catholic.
The Irish Parliament's power was restricted by "Poynings law". Poynings Law was a bill sponsored by English Lord Deputy of Ireland Sir Edward Poynings in 1494. In 1782, the bill was repealed and the kingdom of Ireland had brief period of legislative autonomy. But in 1800 it passed a law called the Act of Union to abolish itself and the kingdom of Ireland, and incorporate Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After that, the island was represented in the British Parliament in London.
- E.M. Johnston-Liik 2002. The History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800: Commons, Constituencies and Statutes Ulster Historical Foundation. ISBN: 9781903688717
