Why the Penal Laws Failed During the eighteenth century many Protestant leaders in Ireland became increasingly nervous about the gradually augmenting wealth and power of the Catholics who inhabited Ireland. In an attempt to cease the growth of the Catholics and in truth, try to convert as many Catholics into Protestants…the Penal Laws were created. The Penal Laws were a collection of laws set up by the Irish parliament between the years of 1691 and 1794. The object of the Penal Laws was threefold; to deprive the Catholics of all civil life. To reduce them to a condition of the most extreme and brutal ignorance, and finally, to dissociate