Henry VIII’s Irish claims
finally throne out
 Henry VIII’s
claim to be King of Ireland has finally been removed from Irish law.
It was one of a number of Britain’s claims on supremacy over Ireland
to be wiped from the record books by the Irish Government.
More than 3,000 laws passed before the Republic of Ireland gained independence
from Britain have been made obsolete.
The list of obsolete Acts — enacted between 1066 and 1922 —
was drawn up by Attorney General Rory Brady.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern hailed The Statute Law Revision Bill 2007 as the
most comprehensive revision of the Statute Book ever undertaken in the
history of the State.
He said: “This bill is the single biggest repealing measure in the
State’s history, and will remove almost as many laws from the Statute
Book as have been enacted in the years since independence.
“It is important that we keep our Statute Book up to date and relevant
and that we clear from it any laws which are obsolete, as well as identifying
those which are still of relevance.”
Many of laws removed were remnants of British rule and the various parliaments
which sat in Ireland between the Norman conquest in 1169 and the Act of
Union in 1800.
Among the laws repealed will be the Government of Ireland Act introduced
in 1920 which preserved Britain’s authority over Ireland.
The review also uncovered a law from 1542 which maintains the King of
England and his heirs and successors as monarchs of Ireland.
It was repealed by the Dáil in 1962 but recent research revealed
a second 1542 law which declared Henry VIII to be the King of Ireland
which had never been repealed.
Staff in the Attorney General’s office checked 26,371 laws enacted
before 1922 — the first comprehensive examination of all statutes
in the history of the Republic. Some 1,350 will be retained for the time
being.
But within the next number of years the Irish Government intends for all
pre-independence legislation to be repealed and replaced with modern laws.
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