Obsolete laws on cattle rustling, riots and murders to be removed from statute books 

Statue of Thomas Francis Meagher: A proclamation for apprehending the Young Ireland 1848 Rebellion leader who it says was “guilty of treasonable practices” is to be removed from the statute books.

They were our version of the American Wild West’s ‘wanted posters’ — offering rewards of up to £2,000 for information leading to the arrest of suspects behind cattle rustling, jail breaks, arson attacks, beatings, riots, rapes, robberies, and murders.

Published in the Dublin Gazette and London Gazette during the Tithe War, Catholic Emancipation and Famine era, they related to all forms of criminal activity such as waylaying, robbing, attacking, and wounding, and also referenced severe, inhumane and unmerciful beatings, causing death by throwing stones or with blows to the head with a pitchfork, setting fire to houses, out-houses, cow-houses, hayricks, barns, and oat-mills, posting threatening notices regarding land, voting and potatoes, and beatings with sticks and stones and nettles.