Under James I, Catholics were barred from all public office after the gunpowder plot was discovered in 1605; the Gaelic Irish and Old English increasingly defined themselves as Catholic in opposition to the Protestant New English settlers.
Under James I, Catholics were barred from all public office after the gunpowder plot was discovered in 1605. In response, the descendants of the pre-conquest population increasingly defined themselves as Catholic (including the Old English) in opposition to the Protestant New English settlers.