Title of the chief governor of Ireland from 1690 to 1922
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
(
[n 1]
), or more formally
Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland
, was the title of the
chief governor of Ireland
from the
Williamite Wars
of
1690
until the
Partition of Ireland
in 1922. This spanned the
Kingdom of Ireland
(1541?1800) and the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
(1801?1922). The office, under its various names, was often more generally known as the
Viceroy
, and his wife was known as the
vicereine
.
[n 1]
The government of Ireland in practice was usually in the hands of the
Lord Deputy
up to the 17th century, and later of the
Chief Secretary for Ireland
.
Role
[
edit
]
The Lord Lieutenant possessed a number of overlapping roles.
[
citation needed
]
He was
- the representative of the King (the "viceroy");
- the head of the executive in Ireland;
- (on occasion) a member of the English or British Cabinet;
- the fount of mercy, justice and patronage;
- (on occasion)
commander-in-chief
in Ireland.
- Grand Master of the
Order of St. Patrick
Prior to the
Act of Union 1800
which abolished the Irish parliament, the Lord Lieutenant formally delivered the
Speech from the Throne
outlining his Government's policies. His Government exercised effective control of parliament through the extensive exercise of the powers of patronage, namely the awarding of
peerages
,
baronetcies
and state honours. Critics accused successive viceroys of using their patronage power as a corrupt means of controlling parliament. On one day in July 1777,
Lord Buckinghamshire
as Lord Lieutenant promoted 5
viscounts
to
earls
, 7
barons
to viscounts, and created 18 new barons.
[4]
: 66
The power of patronage was used to bribe MPs and peers into supporting the
Act of Union 1800
, with many of those who changed sides and supported the Union in
Parliament
awarded peerages and honours for doing so.
Constitutional structure
[
edit
]
The Lord Lieutenant was advised in the governance by the
Irish Privy Council
, a body of appointed figures and hereditary title holders, which met in the Council Chamber in Dublin Castle and on occasion in other locations. The chief constitutional figures in the viceregal court were:
Lords Lieutenant were appointed for no set term but served for "His/Her Majesty's pleasure" (in reality, as long as wished by the British government). When a
ministry
fell, the Lord Lieutenant was usually replaced by a supporter of the new ministry.
Officeholders
[
edit
]
Until the 16th century,
Anglo-Irish
noblemen such as the
8th Earl of Kildare
and the
9th Earl of Kildare
traditionally held the post of Justiciar or Lord Deputy. From the Tudor reconquest of Ireland the post was increasingly given to Englishmen, whose loyalty to the Crown was not doubted.
Although it was the faith of the overwhelming majority on the island of Ireland,
Roman Catholics
were excluded being able to hold the office from
Glorious Revolution
in 1688 until the
Government of Ireland Act 1920
.
Until 1767 Lords Lieutenant did not live full-time in Ireland. Instead they resided in Ireland during meetings of the Irish Parliament (a number of months every two years). However the British cabinet decided in 1765 that full-time residency should be required to enable the Lord Lieutenant to keep a full-time eye on public affairs in Ireland.
[4]
Importance of the post
[
edit
]
The post ebbed and flowed in importance, being used on occasion as a form of exile for prominent British politicians who had fallen afoul of the
Court of St. James's
or
Westminster
. On other occasions it was a stepping stone to a future career. Two Lords Lieutenant,
Lord Hartington
and the
Duke of Portland
, went from
Dublin Castle
to
10 Downing Street
as
Prime Minister of Great Britain
, in 1756 and 1783 respectively.
By the mid-to-late 19th century the post had declined from being a powerful political office to that of being a symbolic quasi-monarchical figure who reigned, not ruled, over the Irish administration. Instead it was the Chief Secretary for Ireland who became central, with him, not the Lord Lieutenant, sitting on occasion in the British cabinet.
Official residence
[
edit
]
The official residence of the Lord Lieutenant was the Viceregal Apartments in
Dublin Castle
, where the Viceregal Court was based. Other summer or alternative residences used by Lord Lieutenant or Lords Deputy included
Abbeville
in
Kinsealy
,
Chapelizod House
, in which the Lord Lieutenant lived while Dublin Castle was being rebuilt following a fire but which he left due to the building being supposedly haunted,
Leixlip Castle
and
St. Wolstan's
in
Celbridge
.
[4]
The Geraldine Lords Deputy, the
8th Earl of Kildare
and the
9th Earl of Kildare
, being native Irish, both lived in, among other locations, their castle in
Maynooth
,
County Kildare
.
Lord Essex
owned
[
citation needed
]
Durhamstown Castle
near
Navan
in
County Meath
, a short distance from the residence of the
Lord Bishop of Meath
at
Ardbraccan House
.
The decision to require the Lord Lieutenant to live full-time in Ireland necessitated a change in living arrangements. As the location of the Viceregal Court, the Privy Council and of various governmental offices, Dublin Castle became a less than desirable full-time residence for the viceroy, vicereine and their family. In 1781 the British government bought the former ranger's house in Phoenix Park to act as a personal residence for the Lord Lieutenant. The building was rebuilt and named the Viceregal Lodge. It was not however until major renovations in the 1820s that the Lodge came to be used regularly by viceroys.
[4]
It is now known as
Aras an Uachtarain
and is the residence of the
President of Ireland
.
By the mid-19th century, Lords Lieutenant lived in the Castle only during the
Social Season
(early January to
St. Patrick's Day
, 17 March), during which time they held social events; balls, drawing rooms, etc. By tradition the coat of arms of each Lord Lieutenant was displayed somewhere in the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle; some were incorporated into stained glass windows, some carved into seating, etc.
Irish attitudes
[
edit
]
The office of Lord Lieutenant, like the British government in Ireland, was greatly resented by some
Irish nationalists
, though it was supported with varying degrees of enthusiasm by the minority Irish
unionist
community. Some Lords Lieutenant did earn a measure of popularity in a personal capacity among nationalists. From the early 19th century, calls were made frequently for the abolition of the office and its replacement by a "
Secretary of State
for Ireland". A bill to effect this change was introduced in Parliament in 1850 by the government of
Lord John Russell
but was subsequently withdrawn when it became clear that it would receive insufficient support to pass.
[5]
The office survived until the establishment of the
Irish Free State
in 1922.
Irish nationalists throughout the 19th century and early 20th century campaigned for a form of Irish self-government.
Daniel O'Connell
sought
repeal
of the Act of Union, while later nationalists such as
Charles Stewart Parnell
sought a lesser measure, known as
home rule
. All four
Home Rule bills
provided for the continuation of the office.
Abolition
[
edit
]
The
Government of Ireland Act 1920
divided Ireland into two
devolved
entities inside the
United Kingdom
,
Northern Ireland
and
Southern Ireland
. Two institutions were meant to join the two; a
Council of Ireland
(which was hoped would evolve into a working all-Ireland parliament) and the Lord Lieutenant who would be the nominal chief executive of both regimes, appointing both prime ministers and dissolving both parliaments. In fact only Northern Ireland functioned, with Southern Ireland being quickly replaced by the
Irish Free State
with
its own Governor-General
. The
Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act 1922
provided that, once the
Parliament of Northern Ireland
opted out of the Free State, the office of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland would be abolished and its residual powers transferred to the new position of
Governor of Northern Ireland
. This duly happened on 8 December 1922, two days after the
Free State Constitution
came into force.
[1]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Irish translations of the title include
Fear Ionad
,
[2]
Fear Ionaid an Ri
,
[3]
or
Ard-Leifteanant
.
[3]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Quekett, Arthur S.
"Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act, 1922"
.
The Constitution Of Northern Ireland
. Vol. Part II: The Government of Ireland Act, 1920 and Subsequent Enactments. Belfast: His Majesty's Stationery Office for the Government of Northern Ireland. p. 196 [s.1(2) fn.[2]
. Retrieved
24 March
2020
.
The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland went out of office on 8th December, 1922, and the appointment of a Governor of Northern Ireland by virtue of the First Schedule to this Act was first made on the following day.
- ^
"Enforcement of Law (Occasional Powers) Act, 1923"
.
Acts of the Oireachtas [with official Irish translation]
(in English and Irish). Oireachtas.
Archived
from the original on 16 December 2017
. Retrieved
24 March
2020
.
- ^
a
b
"Lord Lieutenant"
.
Tearma.ie
(in Irish and English)
. Retrieved
24 March
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Joseph Robins,
Champagne and Silver Buckles: The Viceregal Court at Dublin Castle 1700?1922
p.56 (Lillyput Press, 2001)
ISBN
1-901866-58-0
- ^
Walpole, Spencer (1889).
The Life of Lord John Russell
. Vol. II. London: Longmans, Green & Co. pp. 86?87.
Sources
[
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]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Rachel Wilson, 'The Vicereines of Ireland and the Transformation of the Dublin Court, c. 1703?1737' in
The Court Historian
, xix, no. 1 (2014), pp 3?28.
External links
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]
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