Publisher's Synopsis
This book provides an overview of the entire process of criminal justice in Ireland, during the period. An examination of the criminal law and its implementation is followed by a study of the procedures and personnel of the courts. Judges and magistrates are considered along with village constables and their charges. There is also an analysis of crime as recorded by the courts. Offences of theft, murder, rape and riot are taken alongside pilfering and petty assaults. Finally the work examines the ways in which the legal system actually functioned and the role of the law in Irish society. Fundamental questions are asked and answered concerning the status of the law and the ways in which it was perceived by the people. This book offers new insight into the workings of eighteenth-century society. In doing so it challenges many of the preconceptions held by historians and the public alike.
