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Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
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The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (plural: Lords Lieutenant), also known as the Judiciar in the early mediaeval period and as the Lord Deputy as late as the 17th century, was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland (1171–1541), 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, from the French vice roi or deputy king, with his consort known as the vicereine.
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The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (plural: Lords Lieutenant), also known as the Judiciar in the early mediaeval period and as the Lord Deputy as late as the 17th century, was the King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland (1171–1541), 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, from the French vice roi or deputy king, with his consort known as the vicereine. Although in the Middle Ages some Lords Deputy had been Irish noblemen, after that, with the very odd exception, only noblemen from Great Britain were appointed to the office.
Role
The King's representative possessed a number of overlapping roles. 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 font 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 upgraded 5 viscounts to earls, 7 barons to viscounts, and created 18 new barons. 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
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:
Chief Secretary for Ireland : Originally the chief administrator, but by the end of the 19th century effectively the prime minister in the administration, with the Lord Lieutenant becoming a form of constitutional monarch.
Under-Secretary for Ireland : The head of the civil service in Ireland.
Lord Justices : Three office-holders who acted in the Lord Lieutenant's stead during his absence. The Lord Justices were before 1800 the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh as Primate of All Ireland.
Period in office
Lords Lieutenant were appointed for no set term but served for "His/Her Majesty's pleasure". In reality that meant for as long as wished by the British Government. Where a ministry fell, the Lord Lieutenant was usually replaced by a supporter of the new ministry.
Who held the office
Until the 1500s Irish or Anglo-Irish noblemen such as the 8th Earl of Kildare and the 9th Earl of Kildare traditionally held the post of Judiciar or Lord Deputy. Following the plantations, however, noblemen from Great Britain were given the post. The last Irish Catholic to hold the position was Lord Tyrconnell from 1685-91, during the brief Catholic Ascendancy in the reign of James II that was ended by the Williamite war in Ireland. Until 1767 none of the latter lived 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.
In addition to the restriction that only English or British noblemen could be appointed to the viceroyalty, a further restriction following the Glorious Revolution excluded Roman Catholics, though it was the overwhelming faith of the majority on the island of Ireland, from holding the office. The office was restricted to members of the Anglican faith. The first Catholic appointed to the post since the reign of the Catholic King James II was in fact the last viceroy, Lord FitzAlan of Derwent, in April 1921.
Importance of the post
The post ebbed and flowed in importance, being used on occasion as a form of exile for prominent British politicians who had fallen foul 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 of Ireland who became central, with he, not the Lord Lieutenant, sitting on occasion in the British cabinet.
Official residence
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 Abbeyville in Kinsealy (the home of late Taoiseach Charles Haughey), 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. 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 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 resident 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. It is now known as Áras an Uachtaráin as is the residence of the President of Ireland.
By the mid 19th century, Lords Lieutenant only lived in the Castle during the Social Season (early January to St. Patrick's Day, 17 March), during which time they held social events; balls, drawing rooms, etc.
Irish attitudes towards the Lord Lieutenant
The office of Lord Lieutenant, like the British government in Ireland was generally unpopular with Irish nationalists, though it was supported with varying degrees of enthusiasm by the 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. Though on one occasion, a Bill was even introduced by one government to make this change, the office survived right down until the end of British rule in most of Ireland.
Irish nationalists throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries campaigned for a form of Irish self-government. Daniel O'Connell sought repeal of the Act of Union, with the re-establishment of a Kingdom of Ireland, while later nationalists like Charles Stewart Parnell sought a more moderate form of home rule within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Both made clear however, that the office of Lord Lieutenant could not survive in a restructured system of Irish government.
The last of the four Home Rule bills, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, did provide for the continuation of the office. The Act 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. The powers meant to have been possessed by the Lord Lieutenant were delegated by amendment to a new Governor of Northern Ireland, while the role of representative of the Crown in the Free State went to a new Governor-General of the Irish Free State. The Lord Lieutenancy as a result was abolished.
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. Dubliners noted that the last available space was taken by the last Lord Lieutenant, Lord FitzAlan of Derwent.
See also
Further reading
- Joseph Robins, Champagne and Silver Buckles: The Viceregal Court and Dublin Castle 1700–1922 (Lillyput Press, 2001) ISBN 1-901866-58-0
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