They were Irish laws for Irish people. It would be too much to credit the laws alone with the failure of any single king to consolidate power over the whole island. But they must have given articulate people greater confidence to stand up to authoritarian behaviour, and to insist on what they felt was proper conduct on the part of their kings. As well as guiding judicial practice, the texts constructed a legal edifice that could, at least at times, have provided checks on the exercise of power.
