Governor of Northern Ireland

The office of Governor of Northern Ireland was established on 9 December 1922 under letters patent to:{{cite web |url=http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199798/ldselect/lddereg/146/14607.htm |title=House of Lords, Northern Ireland Bill, Memorandum by the Northern Ireland Office |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605020837/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199798/ldselect/lddereg/146/14607.htm |archivedate=2011-06-05}}

{{blockquote|do and execute in due manner as respects Northern Ireland all things which by virtue of the [1920] Act and our said Letters Patent of 27 April 1921 or otherwise belonged to the office of Lord Lieutenant at the time of the passing of the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922.}}

The governor was the successor to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Northern Ireland, itself established on 3 May 1921.{{efn|3 May 1921 was the "appointed day" under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, upon which the Parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland were established."Order in Council under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920 Fixing Appointed Days for Certain Purposes", SR&O 1921, No. 533}} The office of the governor was abolished on 18 July 1973 under Section 32 of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94hgYO8I6T0C&dq=abolished+%22governor+of+northern+ireland%22&pg=PA545 |title=A New History of Ireland by Theodore William Moody, Francis John. |isbn=978-0-19-821745-9 |access-date=2016-11-05 |last1=Moody |first1=T. W. |last2=Cróinín |first2=Dáibhí |last3=Martin |first3=F. X. |last4=Byrne |first4=F. J. |year=1976 |publisher=Clarendon Press }} The secretary of state for Northern Ireland, a cabinet office that had been created in 1972, took over the functions of the governor on 20 December 1973 under Letters Patent.{{cite web|url= https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/47/schedule/14/paragraph/7?view=plain |title=Northern Ireland Act 1998|publisher=Legislation.co.uk|access-date=26 September 2022}}

Analogous to the governor-general of a Commonwealth Dominion, the governor's formal power was ceremonial, exercised on the "advice" of the Government of Northern Ireland.Torrance 2020 p. 38Bloomfield 2007 p. 9 The government was technically an "executive committee" of the governor's Privy Council of Northern Ireland, which was ceremonial and rarely met.Torrance 2020 pp. 37, 40 The governor summoned and prorogued the Parliament of Northern Ireland (latterly at Stormont Castle) and delivered the speech from the throne at the Parliament's annual State Opening (except for the first such in 1921, delivered in person by George V). The governor had possession of the Great Seal of Northern Ireland,Torrance 2020 p. 40 and exercised the prerogative of mercy.

The governor gave royal assent to bills passed by Stormont. While he had the formal power to disallow or reserve legislation, this was never exercised. The only instance of reservation in relation to Stormont was made by Viscount FitzAlan, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, shortly before the office was replaced by that of Governor of Northern Ireland. FitzAlan referred the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 to the Home Office in London from concern that its abolition of single transferable vote in local elections would violate the 1920 act's prohibition of religious discrimination. The Home Office agreed with FitzAlan but the Law ministry advised FitzAlan to assent regardless, after James Craig threatened the resignation of his ministry in Stormont.Torrance 2020 p. 39 This precedent dissuaded later London governments from interfering in Northern Ireland, although newly enacted Stormont bills were sent to the Home Secretary for review as a matter of course.Bloomfield 2007 pp. 9–11

A 1951 visit by the governor to Londonderry Corporation was the focus of a nationalist protest led by Eddie McAteer against gerrymandering by the unionist corporation against Derry's nationalist majority.{{cite web |last1=Phoenix |first1=Eamon |title=McAteer, Edward Gerard (Eddie) |url=https://www.dib.ie/index.php/biography/mcateer-edward-gerard-eddie-a5552 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |access-date=10 October 2022 |language=en}} When Viscount Brookeborough resigned as prime minister in 1963, governor Baron Wakehurst was active in choosing Terence O'Neill as his successor.{{cite web |last1=Mulholland |first1=Marc |title=Faulkner, (Arthur) Brian Deane |url=https://www.dib.ie/index.php/biography/faulkner-arthur-brian-deane-a3021 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |access-date=10 October 2022 |language=en}} O'Neill in his memoirs compared this to Elizabeth II's appointment by royal prerogative of Alec Douglas-Home as UK prime minister the same year.{{cite book |last1=O'Neill |first1=Terence |title=The Autobiography of Terence O'Neill |date=1972 |publisher=Rupert Hart-Davis |location=London |isbn=978-0-246-10586-8 |page=42 |language=en |quote=Obviously the decision was the Governor's alone, for in those days Unionist Prime Ministers were selected in the same way as their Conservative counterparts in Britain, where the Queen used to send for the person she thought most suitable.}} Ken Bloomfield, a leading Stormont civil servant in the 1960s, "never had any sense of the Governor as a significant factor in [Northern Ireland prime ministers'] plans or calculations".Bloomfield 2007 p. 13 While the Governor might in theory have been a channel of communication between Stormont and London, in practice the Stormont Cabinet Office talked directly to the Home Office in Whitehall.Bloomfield 2007 p. 14 In 1966, an early sign of Northern Ireland's impending troubles came with the unpopularity among loyalists of Governor Lord Erskine, who had successfully lobbied for a new Belfast bridge to be named after Elizabeth II rather than loyalist hero Edward Carson. A crowd led by Ian Paisley jostled and heckled Erskine and his wife as they left the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.Bloomfield 2007 p. 165–166{{cite journal |last1=O'Callaghan |first1=Margaret |last2=O'Donnell |first2=Catherine |title=The Northern Ireland Government, the 'Paisleyite Movement' and Ulster Unionism in 1966 |journal=Irish Political Studies |date=1 June 2006 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=203–222 |doi=10.1080/07907180600707607 |url=https://pureadmin.qub.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/165870498/final_Paisley_Article.pdf}}

The official residence of the governor of Northern Ireland was Hillsborough Castle in County Down. Following refurbishment of the Castle, the Duke of Abercorn took up residence in 1925. It remained the official residence until the abolition of the office of governor in 1973; henceforth it has been the official residence of the secretary of state for Northern Ireland.{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/c1185f90-59d3-11e9-939a-341f5ada9d40 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/c1185f90-59d3-11e9-939a-341f5ada9d40 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription|title=Hillsborough Castle opens its royal doors to all|publisher=Financial Times|date=19 April 2019|access-date=4 May 2021}}

The Governor's standard term of office was six years, renewable without limit, and with no dependency on general elections to the Stormont Parliament. These provisions were carried over in 1922 from those applied by the 1920 act to the office of Lord Lieutenant. The Duke of Abercorn, whose third term as Governor expired in December 1940, agreed to stay on until the end of the Second World War, at which point Earl Granville served out the balance of Abercorn's term and a full term of his own. In 1968, Lord Erskine resigned owing to his wife's ill health. His successor Lord Grey's term was cut short by the 1972 imposition of direct rule.

The 1922 "Instructions" sent alongside the letters patent establishing the office required the governor of Northern Ireland to get the monarch's permission to leave Northern Ireland, and empowered the governor in such cases to issue letters patent under the Great Seal of Northern Ireland appointing a "Deputy or Deputies, Justice or Justices" during his absence. This emulated the practice of appointing Lords Justices of Ireland when the lord lieutenant was absent from Ireland. These were formally called "Lords Justices for the government of Northern Ireland". Each new governor upon taking office would select a slate of eligible deputies from among the Privy Council of Northern Ireland, and at each of his subsequent absences a subset of these would be sworn in for its duration.Quekett 1933 [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.277022/page/n113 Vol.2 pp.70–71] Many were Lord Chief Justice or Lord Justice of Appeal:

Denis Henry,The Belfast Gazette [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/81/page/17 No. 81 p.17] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925013436/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/81/page/17 |date=2021-09-25 }}

William Moore,

James Andrews,

Anthony Babington,

John MacDermott, Baron MacDermott,The Belfast Gazette [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/1577/page/219 No. 1577 p.219] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925013349/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/1577/page/219 |date=2021-09-25 }}

Samuel Clarke Porter.

Others were Senators and/or county lieutenants:

Robert Sharman-Crawford,The Belfast Gazette [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/161/page/880 No. 161 p.880] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801072749/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/161/page/880 |date=2020-08-01 }}

Robert David Perceval-Maxwell,

Henry Armstrong,The Belfast Gazette [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/579/page/403 No. 579 p.403] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925013436/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/579/page/403 |date=2021-09-25 }}

Sir Thomas Dixon, 2nd Baronet,The Belfast Gazette [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/705/page/451 No. 705 p.451] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925013354/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/705/page/451 |date=2021-09-25 }}

Maurice McCausland,

Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey.The Belfast Gazette [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/1265/page/217 No. 1265 p.217] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925013445/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/1265/page/217 |date=2021-09-25 }}

• Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
• Governor-General of the Irish Free State

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{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Bloomfield |first1=Ken |title=A Tragedy of Errors: The Government and Misgovernment of Northern Ireland |date=2007 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-84631-064-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nuTC9ZiZZf0C&pg=PA9 |language=en |url-access=limited}}
• {{cite book |last1=Quekett |first1=Arthur S. |title=The Constitution Of Northern Ireland |volume=Part I: The Origin and Development of the Constitution |date=1928 |publisher=HMSO |location=Belfast |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.277023/page/n88}}
• {{cite book |last1=Quekett |first1=Arthur S. |title=The Constitution Of Northern Ireland |volume=Part II: The Government of Ireland Act 1920 and Subsequent Enactments |date=1933 |publisher=HMSO |location=Belfast |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.277022/page/n670}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Torrance |first1=David |title=Parliament and Northern Ireland, 1921–2021 |journal=House of Commons Briefing Papers |date=21 December 2020 |issue=CBP-8884 |url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8884/CBP-8884.pdf}}

• {{cite book |last1=Mansergh |first1=Nicholas |title=The government of Northern Ireland; a study in devolution |date=1936 |publisher=G. Allen & Unwin |location=London |pages=169–174 |chapter=The Executive; The Governor of Northern Ireland |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/governmentofnort0000mans/page/169 |chapter-url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lowry |first1=Donal |year=2020 |chapter=A 'Supreme and Permanent Symbol of Executive Authority': The Crown and the Governorship of Northern Ireland in an Age of 'Troubles' |editor1-first=Harshan |editor1-last=Kumarasingham |title=Viceregalism: The Crown as Head of State in Political Crises in the Post-War Commonwealth |location=London |publisher=Palgrave-Macmillan |pages=93–126 |isbn=978-3-030-46282-6 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-46283-3_4|s2cid=226590405 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hgPyDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 |chapter-url-access=limited}}

• Donal Lowry, [https://thehistoryofparliament.wordpress.com/2022/03/15/the-office-of-governor-as-the-crowns-representative-symbolising-the-permanence-both-of-the-authority-of-the-northern-ireland-government-and-the-union-with-great-britain-1921-1973/ "The office of Governor as the Crown’s representative, symbolising `the permanence both of the authority of the Northern Ireland Government and the union with Great Britain’, 1921–1973"], The History of Parliament blog

Category:Government of Northern Ireland

Category:Political history of Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Category:1922 establishments in the United Kingdom

Category:1973 disestablishments in the United Kingdom