"It was, no doubt, owing chiefly to this defective weakness [of the ancient Brehon law] that a system of fines rather than punishments grew up, one which in later times caused much scandal to English legal writers. In [Irish society] ... crime in fact was hardly recognizable except in the form of an injury inflicted upon some person or persons. An offence against the State there could not be, simply because there was no State to be offended. Everything, from murder down to the smallest and most accidental injury, was compensated for by 'erics' or fines."
- Emily Lawless (hehehe ironic name given the subject of this quote), The Story of Ireland, 1896