User talk:78.16.52.164

The reason religion was a factor is that in the Penal Laws, a Catholic was not allowed to buy land. Hence if they were not a land owner, they had to lease instead. The Plantations of the 17th century had transferred ownership of the land from the Catholic majority to Protestant settlers, whose descendents (and some descendents of native aristocracy who had converted in order to hold onto their lands after the defeat of James II in 1691 by William III) owned most of the land at the time of the Land Acts. --Bridei921302 (talk) 05:11, 16 August 2020 (UTC)