In what is to be the largest repealing measure ever announced by any country, 5,782 obsolete pre-independence government regulations and orders are finally being revoked in Ireland.

The list of orders being repealed include a proclamation of 1542 declaring that the English crown to be “King of Ireland,” an order of 1227 proclaiming the laws and customs of England to be followed in Ireland, and a 1346 proclamation declaring English money as the currency of Ireland.

A law from 1590 banning the sale of horses “out of the Pale upon pain of death” will be revoked as will a proclamation from 1561 declaring Shane O’Neill, an Irish king of the O’Neill dynasty of Ulster, to a traitor.

And good news for Catholic landowners — they will no longer face removal to the western province of Connacht, as ordered in 1654, RTE reports.

Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin said: "Statute law revision is the process by which spent or obsolete legislation is removed from the statute book."

"The removal leads to a more accessible statute book and will pave the way for further simplification and modernization measures."