St. Patrick – the Lawmaker of Ireland?
At the time of St Patrick’s arrival in Ireland, early Irish law was guided entirely by an oral tradition. One widely held theory, which was strongly promoted by Christian clerics in medieval times, was that after a particularly difficult law case involving our patron saint, St. Patrick himself supervised the mixing of native Irish law and the law of the church.
To do this, a representative of every group came from all over Ireland and recited to St Patrick and his fellows the oral law related to that group. These included the complex and extremely important laws of inheritance.
Under the direction of the saint these oral laws were then written down and collected into a great body of legal manuscripts called the Senchas Már. It appears that any oral law which conflicted with the law of the church was replaced by the saintly man himself.
Whatever about the historical accuracy of this theory, it is known that at the time of St. Patrick, strict inheritance laws applied to Irish society whereby each of the sons of a diseased person would receive equal portions of their father’s estate.
Early Irish law typically did not distinguish between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” children, so all recognised sons would receive their equal share. However, disobedient sons were automatically excluded. In addition, adopted sons could receive a portion of kin land although the amount they could inherit would have to be explicitly stipulated.
The division of land is somewhat obscure. One suggestion is that it was left to the youngest son divide the land into equal parts. The eldest chose first, followed by the second and so on until the youngest received the remaining land. This was intended so that the division of land would be made equally.
More rarely, a father might divide the land for his sons in his lifetime.
While a daughter, if she had brothers, would not normally receive a portion of the inheritance in land, she would inherit movable property. However, should there be no sons, some of the law tracts allowed the daughter to inherit a limited portion. If this happened, there was strong pressure for a woman with land to marry a relative to keep the land within the kin group.
Following the Norman invasion, areas under Anglo-Norman control were subject to English law and gradually, as the years went by, the oral laws, or the Brehon Laws as they are called, disappeared from Ireland to be replaced by modern law, including today’s law of inheritance.
In today’s modern society, we all own something, be it property, car, or whatever and we all want to care for our loved ones after our death. Don’t rely on oral tradition to ensure that your wishes are carried out, make a will.
Making a will gives legal status as to what you intend to do with your assets or possessions. A will can be straightforward, but more often than not, it can be more complicated than you realise.
P.W. Tracey Solicitors can help you to draw up a Will. The complexity of your estate will determine the cost. However the average cost of the most common wills is €200 + VAT.
Before you make an appointment to have you will drawn up it is a good idea to list the questions you would like answered as well as your instructions regarding your money and possessions. You should also decide how you want your estate divided, as well as your choice of executors and funeral arrangements.
