12 



banks of which the seats of the church were more numerous 

 than in any other country in Christendom. 



While many rights assumed by the Crown and by the Anglo- 

 Irish lords became inoperative during the protracted struggle 

 against the invaders, the encroachments of the monasteries 

 continued, unredressed even by subsequent acts of the Legis- 

 lature specially directed against them.* Transferred by patents, 

 together with the temporalities of the dissolved abbacies, to a 

 new influx of feudatories, the weirs of Lismore, of the " Gill- 

 abbey" of Cork, of Limerick, and Mellifont, and numerous 

 smaller ones, owe their origin to the ancient power of the church. 



THE OLD CODE OF LAWS. 



From the reign of Henry VIII., active legislation for the 

 requirements of Ireland may be dated, and from that time to 

 the commencement of the present reign no less than twenty-five 

 different enactments were passed for the improvement and 

 regulation of the Irish inland fisheries.t 



The first is local providing summary means for the removal 

 of obstructions to the free navigation and piscary of the four 



* The rights of the Church to property in the fisheries of Ireland are too 

 numerous to be more than slightly noticed. They evince the pious disposition 

 of the founders to provide a subsistence necessary for its members. In 1 178, St. 

 Lawrence O'Toole, archbishop of Dublin, granted to the church of the Holy 

 Trinity the fishery of the Litfey at its site with the tithes of salmon and all 

 other fish taken in the watercourse. 



Prince John granted to St. Mary's abbey, Dublin, liberty to have a boat in 

 the water of the Avon-Liflfey, to fish with equal privileges as his own boat. The 

 prior of Christ's Church, and the primate, were seised of a similar privilege the 

 former obtaining, in addition, the tithe fish of the river. Daltoiis Dublin, 

 p. 668. 



Richard II. committed to the prior of St. Thomas, of A thy, the custody of 

 two 'haches' (cruives) belonging to that convent in the river Barrow. The 

 friary of Enniscorthy had the exclusive right of fishing with cots on a large 

 portion of the Slaney, and the priory of St. Sepulchre, Wexford, had half the 

 tithes of fish in all cots which landed within the parish of Selsker within that 

 town. Inquisitiones Lagenice. 



It is stated that the Duke of Devonshire had to pay the bishop of Waterford 

 the fourth fish taken in the weir of Lismore, and to the cathedral the tithe or 

 tenth fish, which latter was compounded for under the act at 100 a year 

 Evidence, Report, 1836. 



The Irish clergy appear to have claimed tithe of fish in the time of Strafford. 



The principal weir used by the monks of Dunbrody abbey was called ' God's 

 weare,' an inversion of the immunity significantly known as the 'queen's share,' 

 in solid weirs. 



t Whether the fisheries of Ireland received a great discouragement by the 

 following royal 'dispensation' from King Edward VI., cannot now be known 

 * And where, by the lower and common orders of our realm, certain dayes and 

 tymes be appointed onely to eat ffyshe, our pleasure is, that you our deputie 

 may graunte to such and as many as you thinke goode, full libertie to eate fleshe 

 at all tymes forbidden, any statute, law, or custom to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. 



'To Sir Anthony St. Leger, Knt., L.D., of our realme of Ireland, and to the 

 rest of our counsaill there.' [Hardiman's West Connaught.] 



