Local Government Board for Ireland

The Board was created under the Local Government Board (Ireland) Act 1872, mirroring the Local Government Board created for England and Wales in 1871.{{cite web|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1872/jul/22/local-government-board-ireland-bill-bill|title=Local Government Board (Ireland) Bill – [Bill 90] – Committee|date=22 July 1872|work=HC Deb|pages=vol 212 cc1587–8 |no-pp=y|access-date=13 October 2016}} Upon its establishment, the Board took over the functions of the Irish Poor Law Commissioners with respect to Boards of Guardians of Poor Law Unions, and also dealt with urban municipal government (town commissioners and borough corporations). Its headquarters were in the Custom House, Dublin. There were five Board members: two political ex-officio members, the Chief Secretary for Ireland (who was president) and the Under-Secretary for Ireland; and three permanent technocratic members, including the vice-president and the medical commissioner (a qualified physician for addressing public health issues).{{cite book|last=Carroll|first=Patrick|title=Science, Culture, and Modern State Formation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s2fEmwHuV9oC&pg=PA136|access-date=14 October 2016|date=2 October 2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520932807|pages=136–137}}Local Government Board (Ireland) Act, 1872, sec.2 The first three permanent members were the three final Poor Law Commissioners. Generally the vice-president was in effective charge with the political members absent; but in Arthur Balfour's presidency there were tensions.{{sfn|Crossman|2006|pp=16–17}} Dublin Castle tried to maintain a balance of Catholic and Protestant Board members.{{sfn|Crossman|2006|p=18}}

The Congested Districts Board for Ireland was set up separately in 1891 to deal specifically with areas with large numbers of small uneconomic farms.

After the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, the Local Government Board dealt with the new county and district councils, including the initial recommendations for county boundary adjustments under the 1898 act.{{cite book |title=A handbook of local government in Ireland : containing an explanatory introduction to the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898 : together with the text of the act, the orders in Council, and the rules made thereunder relating to county council, rural district council, and guardian's elections : with an index |last=Clancy |first=John J |author-link=J. J. Clancy (North Dublin MP) |year=1899 |publisher=Sealy, Bryers and Walker |location=Dublin |url=https://archive.org/stream/handbookoflocalg00clan#page/460/mode/2up |access-date=14 October 2016 |pages=44, 47, 151, 167, 232–236, 276 }} Many local councils were nationalist-controlled and these frequently resented the Board, regarding it as bureaucratic and imperialist.{{cite journal|last=Bromage|first=Arthur W.|year=1941|title=Central Control of Local Authorities in Ireland|journal=Public Administration Review|publisher=Wiley|volume=1|issue=2|pages=190–200|issn=0033-3352|doi=10.2307/973084 |jstor=973084}}

County and district councils controlled by Sinn Féin after the 1920 local elections bypassed the Local Government Board in favour of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic's Department of Local Government, with W. T. Cosgrave as Minister.{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=Alvin|title=Ireland 1798–1998: War, Peace and Beyond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jzjmfa43JWkC&pg=PA250|access-date=13 October 2016|date=16 March 2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=9781444324150|page=250}}{{cite web |url=http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/Debates%20Authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/takes/dail1920091700020 |title=Department of Local Government – Break with English Local Government Board |date=17 September 1920 |work=First Dáil debates |publisher=Oireachtas |page=No.17 p.20 cc.221–222 |no-pp=y |access-date=13 October 2016 |archive-date=14 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161014063613/http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/Debates%20Authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/takes/dail1920091700020 |url-status=live }} On 25 May 1921, near the end of the Republic's guerrilla war, the Custom House was burned out by Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army, destroying most of the Board's records.{{cite news|url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SU19210526.2.24|title=Sinn Fein Fire Dublin Customs House|date=26 May 1921|work=Sacramento Union|pages=1, 5|access-date=14 October 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dublindocklands.ie/index.jsp?p=629&n=113&a=82|title=The Custom House|publisher=Dublin Docklands|access-date=14 October 2016}}

After partition, in Northern Ireland the Board's functions passed to the Department of Home Affairs in 1921 and the Department of Health and Local Government on its creation in 1944. In the Irish Free State the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924 formally transferred the Board's functions to the Department of Local Government and Public Health,{{cite ISB|year=1924|num=16|title=Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924]|schedule=y |stitle=Third Part |date=21 April 1924 |parl=ifs}} (now the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage), which has remained in the Custom House.{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/organisation-information/custom-house-visitor-centre/|title=Custom House Visitor Centre|publisher=Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government|website=Government of Ireland|orig-date=28 December 2020|date=19 November 2021}}

• {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/op1249972-1001 |title=First Report |author=Local Government Board for Ireland |series=Command papers |volume=C.794 |year=1873 |access-date=23 July 2024 }}
• {{cite web |publisher=The National Archives |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/35-36/69/pdfs/ukpga_18720069_en.pdf |language=en |title=[35 & 36 Vict c.69] Local Government Board (Ireland) Act 1872}}
• {{cite book |title=The Statutory Rules and Orders Revised, being the Statutory Rules and Orders (Other Than Those of a Local, Personal Or Temporary Character) in force on December 31, 1903 |edition=4th |volume=Index |page=382 |chapter=Local Government Board, Ireland |chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hl562t;view=1up;seq=396 |access-date=11 July 2016 |year=1904 |publisher=H.M. Stationery Office }}
• {{cite book|last=Crossman|first=Virginia|title=Politics, Pauperism and Power in Late Nineteenth-Century Ireland |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-327AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA16 |access-date=14 October 2016|date=2006|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=9780719073779 |pages=16–26 |chapter=The poor law system in nineteenth century Ireland}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A(Local+Government+Board+for+Ireland) author "Local Government Board for Ireland"] from Internet Archive, includes all annual reports 1872–1921

Category:1872 establishments in Ireland

Category:1924 disestablishments in Ireland

Category:History of local government in Ireland

Category:History of local government in the United Kingdom

Category:History of Ireland (1801–1923)