This law was an addition to a list which included the prevention of Catholic land ownership and the prevention of long-term leases for Catholics. However, as Wall, (1), notes, these laws led only to many more Irish Roman Catholics seeking a living within the trade industry. As is evident through this particular instance, there was a negative governmental and political attitude toward Irish Roman Catholics as regards the amassing of wealth, and the Catholics, as we have seen, had a large role to play in the development of that attitude.
This creation of wealth among Irish Roman Catholics, as argued by Whelan, (2), created an instability around the issue of land ownership. As Whelan, (2), outlines, land in Ireland was something of a political issue, rather than an agrarian or economic one. Whelan, (2), observes the impact that land ownership among Irish Roman Catholics had on the eighteenth century society, in the way that land ownership made way for Irish Catholics to access political power. This access to political power, and its denial, as Whelan, (2) comments, influenced greatly the governmental and political attitudes towards Irish Roman Catholics in the eighteenth century. Most notably, as Whelan, (2), remarks, was the rise of the middleman system. As Whelan, (2), explains, the earlier decades of the eighteenth century saw landlords in pursuit of financially stable, Protestant middlemen, or head tenants. These middlemen were sought after for their guaranteed cash payments, and their willingness to maintain and develop their holdings, as Whelan, (2), outlines. Whelan, (2), continues to highlight the bias against non-protestant tenants, namely Catholics, who were perceived to be lazy and careless in their lettings. Whelan, (2), refers to a Cork agent in the early eighteenth century, who ha bush on the same". This opinion, seeing as it comes from an upper class man of the time, most likely reflects the opinions of the well-informed, upper class circles of the time, possibly including governmental and political circles.
