Kevin Costello is Associate Professor at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin, Ireland. He has previously published Law and the Family in Ireland, 1800-1950 (Palgrave, 2017).Niamh Howlin is Associate Professor at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin, Ireland. She has previously published Law and the Family in Ireland, 1800-1950 (Palgrave, 2017).

“This book brings together deep, insightful, and to my mind, novel historical insights into how religion and law interacted in Ireland in the two hundred years before independence, and in the early period of the Irish state. All the contributions are highly credible historical works that make genuine contributions to historical understanding using legal focus and insight. … It is a model work of legal history, a great addition to the literature, and very easy to recommend.” (David Kenny, Journal of Church and State, Vol. 65 (2), 2023)

• Chapter 1: The Legal History of Religion in Ireland.- Chapter 2: The Penal Laws: Origins, Purpose, Enforcement and Impact.- Chapter 3: To “Elude the Design and Intention” of the Penal Laws: Collusion and Discovery in Eighteenth-Century Ireland: A Case Study.- Chapter 4: Repealing the Penal Laws, 1760-95.- Chapter 5: “Inoperative But Insulting:” Residues of the Penal Laws, 1829-1920.- Chapter 6: The Legal and Constitutional Organization of the Catholic Church in Nineteenth Century Ireland.- Chapter 7: Irish Presbyterians and the Quest for Toleration, c.1692–1733.- Chapter 8: “I Am Friends Wt You & Do Entertain No Malice”: Discord, Disputes and Defamation in Ulster Presbyterian Church Courts, c. 1700-1838.- Chapter 9: Church Briefs And Charitable Relief: Reparations For Two Early 18th Century Fire-Damaged Ulster Towns.- Chapter 10: The Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland.- Chapter 11: Disendowment Under The Irish Church Act 1869.- Chapter 12: The Constitution of the Church of Ireland in Action: Ritualist Litigation in a Disestablished Church 1871-1937.- Chapter 13: Religion and the Constitution of the Irish Free State.- Chapter 14: Article 44.1 and the “Special Position” of the Catholic Church in the Irish Constitution, 1937 – 1972.