Why did English laws for Ireland focus on religious differences in the 1500s and 1600s?

There were so many religious difference

Explanation:

In the 16th century, there was a big change in the way some Christians worshipped God. Up until the 16th century most people were Roman Catholic and the Pope in Rome was the head of all the Christian Church. In 1517, a German monk called Martin Luther led a breakaway from the Roman Catholic church

Reformation, also called Protestant Reformation, the religious revolution that took place in the Western church in the 16th century. ... Having far-reaching political, economic, and social effects, the Reformation became the basis for the founding of Protestantism, one of the three major branches of Christianity.