The Statutes of Kilkenny

Copied from: http://ireland-calling.com/february18/

The Statutes of Kilkenny date from 1367, and the reign of Edward III. The statutes fairly unambiguously lay down the attitude of the English crown towards the Anglo-Normans intermingling with the local Irish. Amongst other items that were proscribed and deemed treasonous  were:

• Speaking Irish
• Wearing Irish dress
• Wearing Irish style beards
• Doing business with the Irish
• Allowing Irish to graze cattle on your lands
• Marrying an Irishman or Irishwoman.
• Having an Irish name
• Entertaining an Irish poet or minstrel

And much, much more. The statutes give us a very good idea therefore of the kinds of interactions that had been taking place between the Anglo-Normans and Irish. The fact that John Hadsor was engaged in precisely these same kind of interactions a century later, seems to suggest further that the Statutes did not really work in practice. The mindset that they engendered however was to last for centuries.