WITH the stroke of a legislative pen, the Irish Republic intends to shrug off the legacy of centuries of colonial rule when it abolishes thousands of bizarre laws dating back to the Norman invasion and before.

Under a large-scale overhaul of the statute book, only 200 laws will be retained from the period between 1100 and 1800, when the Act of Union abolished the Irish parliament in Dublin after the 1798 rebellion against British rule.

The laws that will perish include such gems as the denial of a citizen’s right to adulterate coffee with sheep dung, the burning of witches at the stake, and the entertainment of crowds with tiger fights.

Bertie Ahern, the Prime Minister, has announced that there will be a two-month public consultation period on the plan to dump the pre-independence statutes.

Mr Ahern described the changes as the “single largest body of legislation to be repealed in this way in the history of the State”.

He added: “As legislators, governments tend to add to the statute book, but not to take away from it. There is a large volume of legislation that pre-dates the foundation of the Irish State, much of which is now redundant and isn’t really of any practical use.

“The ability, not only of the public, but also of our legislators, solicitors and barristers to keep abreast of this legislation becomes more and more difficult each year, particularly as this legislation is not that easily accessible in paper format.”

He added that all laws predating the foundation of the state would ultimately be repealed, and where there was a need to retain any pre-1922 statute it would be re-enacted in a more modern form.

Among those laws about to be consigned to history is the Tippling Act 1735, which prohibits a publican from pursuing a customer for money owed for any drink given on credit.

The law was aimed at stopping landlords demanding ale money owed to them by servants who resorted to robbing their masters to pay their debts. Another — the Adulteration Of Coffee Act 1718 — made it illegal to debase coffee for profit. Among the substan ces used by unscrupulous traders to “pad out” the sacks of coffee was ground-up sheep dung.

As coffee went out of fashion, a similar law was introduced covering tea — the Adulteration of Tea Act 1776.

The Statute of Winchester of 1285 is known as the first “Police Act”. It set up a Corps of Watchmen to arrest suspicious strangers.

Professor Tom Garvin, of University College, Dublin, said: “There is a touch of shrugging off the last vestiges of the colonial ruler here. The English tried to make the Irish conform to their way of life.”

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The parliament in Kilkenny passed an Act in 1366 forbidding the English from marrying Irish people

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