In 1704, the Irish Parliament passed the Popery Act, a penal law that severely restricted the rights of Catholics in Ireland. The act prohibited Catholics from buying land, leasing land for more than 31 years, or inheriting land from Protestants. It also prevented Catholics from voting or holding public office. The Popery Act was part of a comprehensive legal code designed to maintain Protestant ascendancy and suppress the Catholic majority.

The Popery Act is a cornerstone of the Penal Laws, which are a central subject of grievance in Irish nationalist poetry. The laws' systematic discrimination is lamented in the aisling tradition, where Ireland is personified as a woman mourning her lost rights. The act's legacy of legal subjugation is a recurring theme in Irish poetry, from the 18th-century verses of Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin to the political poetry of the 19th-century Repeal movement.