The article highlights how municipal charters were more than technical constitutional instruments: by reshaping borough officers and electorates, they connected Catholic inclusion in local government to the prospect of a parliament sympathetic to James II. Yet the uneven experience of places such as Gowran and Limerick suggests that this transformation was neither uniform nor complete. It also raises a question about whether contemporaries viewed charter renewal as overdue redress, royal centralisation, or both. How might records, alongside accounts from Catholic and Protestant residents, help us assess how far these charter changes altered civic authority and expectations across Ireland in 1687?