Dr Emma Lyons will give a history talk this Wednesday at 8pm in the Seven Oaks Hotel

AN upcoming history talk in Carlow will look at collusion in 18th century Penal times.

UCD lecturer Dr Emma Lyons will deliver the talk this Wednesday, 18 January, in the Seven Oaks Hotel looking at how some Catholics navigated the Penal Laws. A picture has emerged in recent years of who not only attempted but succeeded in circumventing a legal code ‘directed so comprehensively at the right of the Catholic to enjoy, inherit and purchase land’.

Such tactics included conversions to the established religion and intermarrying with Protestant families, as well as granting annuities, manipulating the use of long leases, entering into private trusts and creating settlements to prevent the land being passed on by gavelkind, the latter three approaches relying on some level of collusion with willing Protestants.

However, these actions could be discovered and lands confiscated.

The talk will examine how three Catholics, Patrick Lattin from Morristown Lattin, Co Kildare, Michael Moore, a merchant from Drogheda, and Richard Leigh from Cullinmore, Co Westmeath, all brothers-in-law endeavoured to avoid potential problems when purchasing land.

In collusion with their Protestant bother-in-law William Alcock, the three bought various properties in Dublin, Kildare and Meath.

The talk will look at the legal strategies used by Catholics to screen their illegal land acquisitions during the Penal Laws. The importance of family and social connections, as well as the information regarding family ties that can be gleaned from legal papers, will also be highlighted. The talk is free and will take place at 8pm.