Privy Council of Ireland

As in England, the medieval unitary king's council evolved into distinct bodies, the smallest being the privy council, of senior advisors to the king (or, in Ireland's case, to the king's representative).{{cite book |last1=Edwards |first1=R. W. Dudley |last2=O'Dowd |first2=Mary |title=Sources for Modern Irish History 1534-1641 |date=13 November 2003 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-27141-7 |pages=12–15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f7iPe3ivdNQC&pg=PA12 |language=en |access-date=18 January 2021 |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128053010/https://books.google.com/books?id=f7iPe3ivdNQC&pg=PA12 |url-status=live }} Others were the great council, which evolved into the Parliament of Ireland, and the afforced council, an ad-hoc body of intermediate size.

The privy council played a leading role in directing the Tudor conquest of Ireland. It established and delegated to Presidencies in Munster and in Connaught, while directly supervising Leinster. Although the chief governor was appointed by the monarch under the Great Seal of England, a 1542 statute legalised the existing practice of an interim Lord Justice being elected by a meeting of the Irish council summoned by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland,[https://books.google.com/books?id=VPwzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA207 34 Hen. 8 sess. 2 c. 1 {{bracket|Ir.}}] as when William Drury was elected in 1579 between Henry Sidney's recall and Lord Grey's arrival.Hutchinson 2014 p.670 Charles I ordered the Lord Deputy to reform the "negligent meeting" of the privy council's committees. The Act of Explanation 1665 empowered the viceroy and council to override the royal charters of municipal corporations; the resulting "New Rules", which governed many major towns from 1672 until the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, allowed the council to veto the corporation's choice of mayor.{{cite journal |title=The Privy Council and the Corporation of Cork |journal=Dublin University Magazine |date=November 1835 |volume=VI |issue=XXXV |pages=587–592 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1hRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA587 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210935/https://books.google.com/books?id=t1hRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA587 |url-status=live }} This power was controversially used in Dublin in 1711–1714 to keep out Whigs,{{cite journal |last1=Murphy |first1=Sean |title=The Corporation of Dublin 1660 - 1760 |journal=Dublin Historical Record |date=1984 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=25–26 |jstor=30100752 |issn=0012-6861}} and in Cork in 1835 to keep out an Orangeman. The 1665 act also established a commission to resolve doubts over the Act of Settlement 1662; when the commission found further ambiguities in the 1665 act's terms of reference, it applied to the "Lord Lieutenant and Council" to resolve them.{{cite book |title=Statutes Passed in the Parliaments Held in Ireland |date=1794 |publisher=George Grierson |location=Dublin |volume=II: 1665–1712 |pages=191–199 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYFRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA191 |language=en |chapter=The Resolution of the Doubts, by the Lord Lieutenant and Council, upon the Act of Settlement, and Explanation thereof. |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210935/https://books.google.com/books?id=QYFRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA191 |url-status=live }}

Poynings' Law (1495) gave the Irish Privy Council a leading role in the legislative process. Before the council summoned each new Parliament (with a general election to the Commons) it had to submit the Parliament's bills to the Privy Council of England for approval as "causes and considerations" for the summons. Initially, all bills were by the Irish council, and the Commons and Lords could pass or reject, but not amend them. By the 18th century, a legal fiction arose where Parliament debated "heads of a bill" and petitioned the council to introduce it; the council could still amend or reject these "heads". Private bills were always initiated by the council until the Williamite revolution.{{cite journal |last1=Kelly |first1=James |title=The Private Bill Legislation of the Irish Parliament, 1692–1800 |journal=Parliamentary History |date=February 2014 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=73–96 |doi=10.1111/1750-0206.12090 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260532117 |access-date=19 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210937/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260532117_The_Private_Bill_Legislation_of_the_Irish_Parliament_1692-1800 |url-status=live }} The council gradually stopped initiating any bills beyond two "causes and considerations" bills, one of which was always a money bill, to which the Commons objected as violating its control of supply. The Patriot Party defeated the 1768 "Privy Council Money Bill", heralding an increase in parliamentary sovereignty which culminated in the Constitution of 1782, which removed the Irish Privy Council from the legislative process.{{cite web |title=Background to the Statutes: The Constitutional Position |url=https://www.ancestryireland.com/history-of-the-irish-parliament/background-to-the-statutes/the-constitutional-position/ |website=History of the Irish Parliament |publisher=Ulster Historical Foundation |access-date=18 January 2021 |archive-date=5 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205022725/https://www.ancestryireland.com/history-of-the-irish-parliament/background-to-the-statutes/the-constitutional-position/ |url-status=live }}{{cite journal |last1=Bartlett |first1=Thomas |title=The Irish House of Commons' Rejection of the 'Privy Council' Money Bill in 1769: A Re-Assessment |journal=Studia Hibernica |date=1979 |issue=19 |pages=63–77 |doi=10.3828/sh.1979.19.3 |jstor=20496137 |s2cid=241693174 |issn=0081-6477}} (The British Privy Council retained the right to veto Irish bills, but not to amend them.)

Orders in Council were issued by the chief governor with the advice and consent of the Privy Council. From Elizabeth to Charles I, the Irish council filled the legislative gap during long intervals between Irish parliaments by passing "Acts of State", justified on grounds similar to those latterly used for Charles' Personal Rule.{{cite book |first=W. N. |last=Osborough |editor-last1=Donlan |editor-first1=Seán Patrick |editor-last2=Brown |editor-first2=Michael |title=The Laws and Other Legalities of Ireland, 1689–1850 |date=2013 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-8257-4 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eAKiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |access-date=12 June 2020 |language=en |chapter=Eighteenth-century Ireland's legislative deficit |page=80 |archive-date=25 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200625105911/https://books.google.com/books?id=eAKiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80 |url-status=live }} The governor could issue proclamations without the council on routine matters, but on important policy questions needed the council's agreement.{{cite book |last1=Kelly |first1=James |title=The Proclamations of Ireland 1660–1820 |date=2014 |publisher=Irish Manuscripts Commission |location=Dublin |isbn=9781906865184 |chapter-url=https://www.irishmanuscripts.ie/pdf/products/125/Proclamations%20VOl%201%20Preview.pdf |volume=I |access-date=18 January 2021 |chapter=Introduction |archive-date=10 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210165958/http://www.irishmanuscripts.ie/pdf/products/125/Proclamations%20VOl%201%20Preview.pdf |url-status=live }} The 1724 defeat of Wood's halfpence came after the Irish privy council sided with the Irish parliament in opposition to the British government and refused to intercede between parliament and the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Carteret.{{cite journal |last1=McNally |first1=Patrick |title=Wood's Halfpence, Carteret, and the Government of Ireland, 1723-6 |journal=Irish Historical Studies |date=1997 |volume=30 |issue=119 |pages=354–376 |doi=10.1017/S0021121400013195 |jstor=30008625 |s2cid=156472789 |issn=0021-1214}}

The Irish council developed a judicial role later than the Privy Council of England, with the Court of Castle Chamber sitting in Dublin Castle from 1571 to 1641.{{cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Jon G. |title=A Star Chamber Court in Ireland: The Court of Castle Chamber, 1571–1641 |date=2005 |publisher=Four Courts Press |location=Dublin |isbn=978-1-85182-934-7 |language=en}}

Privy Councillors had a right of audience with the viceroy, and many men were anxious to become members purely for this access and took little or no part in council business. Charles II's 1679 plan to reduce the number to 20 or 30 was not acted on.{{cite journal |last1=Turner |first1=Edward Raymond |title=The Privy Council of 1679 |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1915 |volume=30 |issue=118 |pages=262–263 |url=https://archive.org/details/englishhistorica30londuoft/page/262 |jstor=551621 |issn=0013-8266}} By the eighteenth century, there were over 100 councillors, few of whom usually attended meetings.{{cite book |last1=Hyde |first1=H. M. |title=The Rise Of Castlereagh |date=1933 |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |pages=230–232 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.77199/page/n264}} Nevertheless, the viceroy informally consulted an inner circle before the formal council meetings, in order to expedite decision-making. In Great Britain a similar process led to the evolution of this inner circle or "cabinet" into the de facto government while the full privy council became a ceremonial body. Ireland's dependency and lack of responsible government prevented such a definitive division there. The oath of office for senior positions in the administration was taken at a council meeting. Latterly such offices as Vice-Treasurer of Ireland were sinecures whose holders might secure a private act of the British parliament allowing them to take the oath in Britain to save the bother of travelling to Dublin.See e.g. descriptions in [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/46/schedule/2/enacted/en/html#sched2-part3 Statute Law Revision Act 2009 Schedule 2 Part 3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116202149/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2009/act/46/schedule/2/enacted/en/html#sched2-part3 |date=16 November 2017 }} of: 1 Geo. 1 St. 2 c. 39P; 3 Geo.1 c. 17P; 10 Geo. 1 c. 23P; 10 Geo. 1 c. 24P; 15 Geo. 2 c. 27P; 18 Geo. 2 c. 5P; 19 Geo. 2 c. 18P; 19 Geo. 2 c. 27P.

Although the Acts of Union 1800 abolished the Kingdom of Ireland and its parliament, its Privy Council (like the Lord Lieutenant) was retained, alternatives —abolishing the Irish council or merging it with the British one— receiving little consideration.{{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Michael |title=Review of The Later Correspondence of George III. Vol. III: 1798-1801 |journal=Irish Historical Studies |date=1969 |volume=16 |issue=63 |page=387 |doi=10.1017/S0021121400022422 |jstor=30005370 |s2cid=164139834 |issn=0021-1214}} In 1801 Lord Pelham, a former Chief Secretary for Ireland, became British Home Secretary and assumed that his office now extended to Ireland, but viceroy Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke insisted that the silence of the 1800 acts regarding the Irish council implied that its assent remained obligatory for effecting government orders.{{cite book |last1=Brynn |first1=Edward |title=Crown & castle: British rule in Ireland, 1800-1830 |date=1978 |publisher=O'Brien Press |location=Dublin |isbn=978-0-905140-11-7 |pages=63–64 |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |url=https://archive.org/details/crowncastlebriti0000bryn/page/63}} Ireland under the Union had a some government bodies answerable to the viceroy and Council and others which were divisions of Whitehall departments; however, a lack of collegiality prevented the Irish council becoming a rival power centre. In 1850 the First Russell ministry proposed to abolish the Lord Lieutenant and transfer some of his statutory functions to Privy Council of Ireland. Opposing this, Thomas Chisholm Anstey said, "The Privy Council of Ireland, like that of England, though the chief council for purposes of State, he regretted to say, was never summoned unless on holyday occasions, its duties having been usurped by the Cabinet Council, a body unknown to the common law."{{multiref|

{{cite hansard |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1850/jun/17/lord-lieutenancy-abolition-ireland-bill#column_1406 |title=Lord Lieutenancy Abolition (Ireland) Bill |first=C. |last=Anstey |author-link=Thomas Chisholm Anstey |date=17 June 1850 |volume=111 |house=HC |column=1406 }}|

{{cite book |title=Lord Lieutenancy Abolition (Ireland) Bill |date=17 May 1850 |publisher=HMSO |location=London |series=Parliamentary papers |volume=HC 1850 III (359) 617 |pages=8–12 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZ9bAAAAQAAJ&pg=PT221 |language=en |chapter=Schedules}}

}}

In 1852 the Privy Council Office was merged into the Chief Secretary's Office.{{cite web |title=Ireland: Dublin Castle Records |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5093 |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=20 January 2021 |location=London |language=en |archive-date=29 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129001520/http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5093 |url-status=live }} Latterly the council's executive role was merely formal and ceremonial.{{cite book |chapter-url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1907/mar/22/english-and-irish-privy-councils |chapter=English and Irish Privy Councils |title=Hansard |volume=HC Deb vol 171 |no-pp=y |page=c1282 |date=22 March 1907 |access-date=23 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210939/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1907/mar/22/english-and-irish-privy-councils |url-status=live }} Of ten meetings held from August 1886 to January 1887, attendance ranged from four (including three Lords Justices) to ten (including the Lord Lieutenant).{{cite book |title=Return Showing the Dates of Meetings of Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland Held from the 1st Day of August 1886 to the 31st Day of January 1887 Inclusive, and the Names of Members of the Council Present at Each Such Meeting |date=15 March 1887 |series=Parliamentary papers |volume=1887 HC lxvii (40) 427 |publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode |location=London |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044106505761&seq=443 |language=en}} There was controversy over the proclamations issued by the council under the Criminal Law and Procedure (Ireland) Act 1887, since among the signatories were senior judges who might hear appeals against sentences handed down under the act. Sir Michael Morris, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, stated that in his 20 years attending council meetings, no "matter of policy" was discussed.

In the 19th century, petitions to the Privy Council against decisions of various administrative bodies were referred to committees of councillors with legal experience. Most committees were ad hoc, but there were statutory "judicial committees" (comprising current or former senior judges) relating to the Encumbered Estates' Court (1849–58) and Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898.{{cite journal |last1=McDowell |first1=R. B. |title=The Irish Courts of Law, 1801-1914 |journal=Irish Historical Studies |date=1957 |volume=10 |issue=40 |pages=365 |doi=10.1017/S0021121400016667 |jstor=30005075 |s2cid=159780532 |issn=0021-1214}} Other committees heard appeals under the Tramways and Public Companies (Ireland) Act 1883, Educational Endowments (Ireland) Act 1885, Labourers (Ireland) Act 1885, and Irish Education Acts 1892 and 1893.McDowell 1976 [https://archive.org/details/irishadministrat0000mcdo_j7o5/page/106 pp. 106–107] The Veterinary Department of the Irish Privy Council, established 1866–72, was "most peculiarly constituted", having no corresponding committee of the council;{{cite book |author1=Recess Committee on the Establishment of a Department of Agriculture and Industries for Ireland |title=Report with Appendices |date=1896 |publisher=Browne & Nolan |location=Dublin |page=132 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJjXAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22committee%20of%20the%20irish%20privy%20council%22&pg=PA132 |language=en}} it became the Veterinary Branch of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction upon the latter's 1900 establishment.{{cite web |last1=Lunney |first1=Linde |title=Ferguson, Hugh |url=https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a3051 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |publisher=Cambridge University Press |access-date=10 March 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210937/https://www.dib.ie/ |url-status=live }}; [https://books.google.com/books?id=u_hHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA144 Cattle Disease (Ireland) Amendment Act 1872] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210936/https://books.google.com/books?id=u_hHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA144 |date=26 September 2021 }}, preamble; {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/op1255175-1001/page/n116/mode/1up |pages=107–109, ss. 215, 219, 220 |title=Report of the Departmental Committee of Inquiry into the Provisions of Agricultural and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 1899 |series=Command papers |publisher=HMSO |location=Dublin |volume=Cd. 3572 |date=1907 }} The Privy Council's Irish Universities Committee was established in 1908 to hear petitions relating to the National University of Ireland (NUI) and Queen's University Belfast (QUB).{{cite web |title=Irish Universities Act 1908 ss. 5(4), 17(2), 18 |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1908/act/38/enacted/en/print.html |website=electronic Irish Statute Book |access-date=18 January 2021 |language=en |archive-date=1 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190901015820/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1908/act/38/enacted/en/print.html |url-status=live }}

Although the Government of Ireland Act 1920 provided for the partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, it had some all-island institutions, retaining the Privy Council,{{cite book |last1=Coakley |first1=John |editor-last1=Coakley |editor-first1=John |editor-last2=Gallagher |editor-first2=Michael |chapter=Northern Ireland and the British dimension |title=Politics in the Republic of Ireland |date=12 December 2012 |edition=4th |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-73720-8 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PN38ksJ7nK8C&pg=PT466 |language=en |access-date=25 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210939/https://books.google.com/books?id=PN38ksJ7nK8C&pg=PT466 |url-status=live }} of which the northern and southern governments would technically be executive committees.[{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pHcaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA400 |title=Government of Ireland Act 1920 {{bracket|as enacted}} s.8(4)(a), s.8(5) |year=1921 |access-date=18 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210937/https://books.google.com/books?id=pHcaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA400 |url-status=live }} Government of Ireland Act 1920 {{bracket|as enacted}} s.8(4)(a), s.8(5)] Accordingly, the members of the first Executive Committee for Northern Ireland, the Craigavon ministry, were sworn of the Privy Council of Ireland in May 1921 immediately before Lord Lieutenant Viscount FitzAlan appointed them to their ministries. The 64 Southern Senators included eight elected by Privy Councillors from among their membership.[https://books.google.com/books?id=pHcaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA446 Government of Ireland Act 1920 {{bracket|as enacted}} s.13 and Second Schedule, Part III]; {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210939/https://books.google.com/books?id=pHcaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA446 |date=26 September 2021 }} {{cite web |title=The Senate of Southern Ireland, 1921 |last=Whyte |first=Nicholas |date=17 February 2002 |work=Northern Ireland elections |access-date=8 March 2004 |url=http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/h1921.htm |publisher=Access Research Knowledge |archive-date=10 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610020704/http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/h1921.htm |url-status=live }} If the Southern Commons was inquorate, the Lord Lieutenant could replace the Southern Parliament with a committee of Privy Councillors, a provision dubbed "Crown Colony government".[https://books.google.com/books?id=pHcaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA440 Government of Ireland Act 1920 {{bracket|as enacted}} s.72(1)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210941/https://books.google.ie/books?id=pHcaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA440 |date=26 September 2021 }};

{{cite web |work=Hansard |title=Government of Ireland Bill |volume=HL Deb ser 5 vol 42 |no-pp=y |page=c466 |author-link=F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead |last=Birkenhead |first=((F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of)) |date=23 November 1920 |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1920/nov/23/government-of-ireland-bill#column_426 |quote=In plain words, this is a substitution of Crown Colony Government for the Representative Government proposed by the Bill. |access-date=25 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210939/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1920/nov/23/government-of-ireland-bill#column_426 |url-status=live }};

{{cite journal |last1=Donnelly |first1=Seán |title=Ireland in the imperial imagination: British nationalism and the Anglo-Irish Treaty |journal=Irish Studies Review |date=2 October 2019 |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=493–511 |doi=10.1080/09670882.2019.1658404|s2cid=203052588 }} During the Anglo-Irish War the 1921 Southern election was won by abstentionsts of Sinn Féin, and the "Crown Colony" provision seemed likely to be invoked, but a truce was agreed leading to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The British initially hoped the resulting Provisional Government could be appointed under the "Crown Colony" provision, but realised ministers from Sinn Féin would refuse the Privy Council oath, and instead the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922 replaced much of the 1920 act as regards Southern Ireland.{{cite journal |last1=McColgan |first1=John |title=Implementing the 1921 Treaty: Lionel Curtis and Constitutional Procedure |journal=Irish Historical Studies |date=1977 |volume=20 |issue=79 |pages=317, 332 |doi=10.1017/S0021121400024299 |jstor=30006230 |s2cid=159563092 |issn=0021-1214}}

It was in the Council Chamber on 16 January 1922 that Viscount FitzAlan formally handed over control of the Dublin Castle administration to the Provisional Government of what would on 6 December become the Irish Free State.{{cite web |last1=Derham |first1=William |title=16 January 1922: Remembering the Handover of Dublin Castle to Michael Collins |url=https://www.dublincastle.ie/16-january-1922-remembering-the-handover-of-dublin-castle-to-michael-collins/ |publisher=Dublin Castle |access-date=9 March 2021 |date=2018 |archive-date=21 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121043647/https://www.dublincastle.ie/16-january-1922-remembering-the-handover-of-dublin-castle-to-michael-collins/ |url-status=live }} However, no meeting was held to mark the occasion,{{cite book |last1=Maguire |first1=Martin |title=The civil service and the revolution in Ireland, 1912–38 |date=2008 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-7740-1 |page=127 |language=en |doi=10.7765/9781847793782.00009}} the Provisional Government had no dealings with the Privy Council of Ireland, and some of its few remaining meetings were in Northern Ireland; for example on 24 November 1922 it met in Galgorm Castle, Ballymena and again at Stormont Castle, Belfast.{{cite journal |title=Privy Council |journal=The Belfast Gazette |date=3 November 1922 |issue=70 |page=616 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/70/page/616 |access-date=19 February 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210948/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/70/page/616 |url-status=live }} The final appointments to the Privy Council were those of Charles Curtis Craig, William Henry Holmes Lyons, and Henry Arthur Wynne on 28 November 1922, on the recommendation of James Craig, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.{{cite journal |journal=Belfast Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/74/page/685 |number=74 |page=685 |date=1 December 1922 |title=Privy Councillors (Ireland) |author=Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood |access-date=2 August 2014 |archive-date=13 August 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813212202/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/74/page/685 |url-status=live }} The last Order in Council was made on 5 December 1922.Quekett 1933 p. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.277022/page/n61/mode/n267 223 fn. 2] When the Constitution of the Irish Free State came into force the next day, the UK's Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act 1922 created the Governor and Privy Council of Northern Ireland to perform the functions previously performed there by the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council of Ireland.Quekett 1933 pp. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.277022/page/n61/ 18, fn.9]; [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.277022/page/n267 222] The first Governor was appointed on 9 December 1922,Quekett 1933 pp. [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.277022/page/n67 24–25, fn.9] and on 12 December was sworn in and in turn appointed Craig's cabinet to the Privy Council of Northern Ireland.{{cite journal |title=Ceremonial |journal=Belfast Gazette |date=12 December 1922 |issue=Supplement to 75 |pages=709–710 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/75/page/709 |access-date=16 July 2024 }} In the Irish Free State, statutory references to "Order in Council, or by the King (or Queen) in Council, or by Proclamation of the King (or Queen) or of the King (or Queen) in Council" were changed to "Order of the Governor-General upon the advice of the Executive Council".{{cite web |title=Adaptation of Enactments Act 1922 s.10 |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1922/act/2/section/10/enacted/en/html#sec10 |website=electronic Irish Statute Book |access-date=18 January 2021 |language=en |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127200809/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1922/act/2/section/10/enacted/en/html#sec10 |url-status=live }}; {{cite web |title=Adaptation of Enactments Bill |url=https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1922-12-18/7/#spk_52 |website=Seanad Éireann (1922 Seanad) Debates |publisher=Oireachtas |access-date=20 January 2021 |language=en-ie |date=18 December 1922 |archive-date=25 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201225083218/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1922-12-18/7/#spk_52 |url-status=live }}

Although never formally abolished, the Privy Council of Ireland ceased to have any functions and did not meet again. The Chief Secretary's chair was taken from the Council Chamber in Dublin Castle to serve as the chair of the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Éireann.{{cite news |author-link=Donal O'Sullivan (politician) |last1=O'Sullivan |first1=Donal |title=Chief Secretary's Chair |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1966/1125/Pg009.html#Ar00908 |url-access=subscription |access-date=18 January 2021 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=25 November 1966 |page=9}} In 1930, the meaning of appeal to "His Majesty in Council" (in the Free State Constitution and Anglo-Irish Treaty) was disputed in a case at the Judicial Committee of the UK Privy Council in London (JCPC). One party claimed that "His Majesty in Council" ought to mean the Privy Council of Ireland, but the JCPC ruled that it meant the JCPC itself.{{cite journal |last1=Mohr |first1=Thomas |title=Law Without Loyalty — The Abolition of the Irish Appeal to the Privy Council |journal=Irish Jurist |date=2002 |volume=37 |page=193 |jstor=44027022 |issn=0021-1273 |url=https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstream/10197/5308/4/PC_Article_2002.pdf#page=10 |access-date=18 January 2021 |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127194405/https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/bitstream/10197/5308/4/PC_Article_2002.pdf#page=10 |url-status=live }};

{{cite bailii |litigants=The Performing Right Society, Limited v The Urban District Council of Bray |year=1930 |court=UKPC |num=36 |date=10 April 1930 |pinpoint=p.10 }} In 1931 The Irish Times reported a rumour that the Free State government was seeking to transfer the JCPC's appellate jurisdiction to a revived Privy Council of Ireland.{{cite news |title=Free State Appeals; An Ingenious Plan |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1931/0214/Pg009.html#Ar00900 |access-date=18 January 2021 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=14 February 1931 |page=9}} The Parliamentary Gazette, an unofficial reference work, continued to publish lists of members of the "Privy Council in Ireland" as late as 1934.{{cite journal |title=Privy Council in Ireland |journal=The Parliamentary Gazette |date=June 1934 |issue=98 |page=134 |publisher=James Howarth |language=en}} Official sources after 1922 occasionally retained the style "Rt Hon" for members of the dormant Irish Privy Council; for example in Oireachtas proceedings of Andrew Jameson,Seanad Éireann debates

[https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1923-06-13/2/ 13 Jun 1923 v1 c1155] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128225635/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1923-06-13/2/ |date=28 January 2021 }},

[https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1927-02-23/8/ 23 Feb 1927 v8 c289] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128124453/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1927-02-23/8/ |date=28 January 2021 }},

[https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1927-10-11/4/ 11 Oct 1927 v10 c3] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128173222/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1927-10-11/4/ |date=28 January 2021 }},

[https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1934-05-31/speech/14/ 31 May 1934 v18 c1350] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210953/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/seanad/1934-05-31/2/ |date=26 September 2021 }}

Bryan Mahon,Dáil Éireann debates [https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1929-02-20/25/ 20 Feb 1929 v28 c26] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129211606/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1929-02-20/25/ |date=29 January 2021 }}

and James Macmahon,Dáil Éireann debates [https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1950-12-14/speech/495/ 14 Dec 1950 v123 c2304] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210957/https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1950-12-14/79/ |date=26 September 2021 }}

and in The London Gazette of Henry Givens Burgess.{{cite journal |title=Re Rt. Hon. Henry Givens Burgess, Deceased. Pursuant to the Trustee Act, 1925 |journal=The London Gazette |date=17 December 1937 |issue=34464 |page=7968 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34464/page/7968 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210952/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34464/page/7968 |url-status=live }}; {{cite journal |title=Privy Council Office, Dublin Castle |journal=The Belfast Gazette |date=20 January 1922 |issue=27 |page=275 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/27/page/275 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210954/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Belfast/issue/27/page/275 |url-status=live }} Hugh O'Neill, 1st Baron Rathcavan was the last surviving Irish Privy Councillor; appointed on 16 September 1921, he died on 28 November 1982.

While the Irish Universities Committee was succeeded in relation to QUB by a committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland,{{cite book |title=The Public General Acts of 1954 ... Northern Ireland |date=21 December 1954 |publisher=HMSO |location=Belfast |page=235 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/publicgeneralact0000rcar/page/235/mode/1up?q=%22Irish+Universities+Act%22 |chapter=Higher Technological Studies Act [NI 1954 c. 29] s.9 |chapter-url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}} in the Republic of Ireland in 1973 Seanad Éireann expressed concern that there was no way to process petitions relating to the NUI because "the Privy Council in Ireland is non-existent".{{cite book |author1=Seanad Éireann, Select Committee on Statutory Instruments |title=Third Report |url=http://archive.oireachtas.ie/1973/en.toc.com.ORDERS_29031973_0.html |publisher=Stationery Office |location=Dublin |access-date=18 January 2021 |no-pp=y |pages=[http://archive.oireachtas.ie/1973/REPORT_29031973_0.html Report s.4]; [http://archive.oireachtas.ie/1973/APPENDIX_29031973_I.html Appendix I] |date=29 March 1973 |volume=Prl.3149 |series=Official publications |archive-date=23 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923183200/http://archive.oireachtas.ie/1973/en.toc.com.ORDERS_29031973_0.html |url-status=live }}

{{see also|List of Privy Counsellors of Ireland}}

Technically there were no {{lang|la|ex officio}} members of the council, as appointment was by letters patent after swearing a specific oath of office at a council meeting. However, holders of certain offices were "sworn of the council" as a matter of course. Councillors in the time of Elizabeth I included the Chancellor of Ireland, Treasurer of Ireland, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland, a puisne judge, the Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Meath. In the 17th century, the Privy Council mostly comprised Irish peers, many of whom were absentees in England, so that only a fraction attended council meetings. In the 18th century more members of the Commons were appointed.{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=James |editor-last1=Donlan |editor-first1=Seán Patrick |editor-last2=Brown |editor-first2=Michael |title=The Laws and Other Legalities of Ireland, 1689-1850 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1-4094-8257-4 |doi=10.4324/9781315556222 |date=2013 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eAKiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |chapter=The Privy Council of Ireland and the making of Irish law, 1692–1800 |pages=47–74 |language=en |access-date=18 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210945/https://books.google.com/books?id=eAKiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 |url-status=live }} The Commander-in-Chief, Ireland was a member.{{cite book |last1=Dod |first1=Charles R. |title=A manual of dignities, privilege, and precedence : including lists of the great public functionaries, from the revolution to the present time |date=1843 |publisher=Whittaker |location=London |page=265 |url=https://archive.org/details/manualofdignitie00dodc/page/265}} By the 19th century the Attorney-General for Ireland was a member as were many senior judges; Charles Dod contrasted this with the equivalent officers in England and Wales, who received knighthoods. The chief governor attended meetings but was not a member of the council; a former Lord Lieutenant might be sworn in as a member after stepping down.{{cite journal |title=The Irish Privy Council |journal=The Law Times |date=21 January 1893 |pages=257–258 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gjhHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA257 |volume=94 |number=2590 |location=London |language=en |access-date=18 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210945/https://books.google.com/books?id=gjhHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA257 |url-status=live }} After the Church of Ireland's 1871 disestablishment its archbishops of Dublin and Armagh were no longer appointed.{{cite book |last1=Lucas |first1=John |last2=Morris |first2=Bob |editor1-last=Morris |editor1-first=R. M. |title=Church and State in 21st Century Britain: The Future of Church Establishment |date=2009 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-23437-6 |page=115 |doi=10.1057/9780230234376_8 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WRiJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 |language=en |chapter=Disestablishment in Ireland and Wales |access-date=10 March 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210946/https://books.google.com/books?id=WRiJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA115 |url-status=live }}

James II appointed Catholic Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell as Lord Deputy and appointed Catholics to the council, including judges and Richard Nagle.O'Flanagan 1870 [https://books.google.com/books?id=iTtNPD5O5qoC&pg=PA418 vol I p.418] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210947/https://books.google.ie/books?id=iTtNPD5O5qoC&pg=PA418 |date=26 September 2021 }} Tyrconnell objected to Nagle on the ground that he was undignified as a practising barrister. Later penal laws prevented Catholic Privy Councillors until the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 changed the oath of office, the next being Anthony Richard Blake in 1836.{{cite book |last1=Hawkins |first1=Richard |title=Dictionary of Irish Biography |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter-url=https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a0720 |access-date=20 January 2021 |chapter=Blake, Anthony Richard |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128154618/https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a0720 |url-status=live }} In 1846 Daniel Murray, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, was offered a place on the council.{{cite book |last1=O'Connor |first1=Thomas |title=Dictionary of Irish Biography |publisher=Cambridge University Press |chapter-url=https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a6110 |access-date=19 January 2021 |chapter=Murray, Daniel |date=2009 |archive-date=7 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207122200/https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a6110 |url-status=live }}

The role of Secretary of the Council and Keeper of the Privy Seal of Ireland was filled by the Secretary of State (Ireland) while that office existed (1560–1802) and the Chief Secretary for Ireland thereafter.{{cite journal |last1=Wood |first1=Herbert |title=The Offices of Secretary of State for Ireland and Keeper of the Signet or Privy Seal |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature |date=1928 |volume=38 |pages=56, 61 |jstor=25515934 |issn=0035-8991}} The office of Clerk of the council was by the 18th century a sinecure, held from 1786 by Henry Agar, later 2nd Viscount Clifden.McDowell 1976 [https://archive.org/details/irishadministrat0000mcdo_j7o5/page/72 p.72] After Clifden's death in 1836, the Public Offices (Ireland) Act 1817 applied,{{Cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924092898422&view=1up&seq=285 |title=57 Geo. 3 c. 62 ss. 4–5 |publisher=His Majesty's statute and law printers |access-date=28 January 2021 |archive-date=2 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302091159/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924092898422&view=1up&seq=285 |url-status=live }} and the senior deputy clerk became "First Clerk of the Council, Usher, and Keeper of the Council Chamber",{{cite book |title=The Royal Kalendar and Court and City Register for England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies for the Year 1835 |date=1835 |publisher=Suttaby |location=London |page=367 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DegNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA367 |language=en |access-date=28 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210947/https://books.google.com/books?id=DegNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA367 |url-status=live }}; {{cite book |title=Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanack |date=1837 |publisher=Pettigrew & Oulton |location=Dublin |page=81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4DU_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA81 |access-date=28 January 2021 |language=en |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210940/https://books.google.com/books?id=4DU_AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA81 |url-status=live }}; {{cite book |title=Miscellaneous Services for the Year ending 31st March 1844; VI: Superannuation And Retired Allowances And Gratuities For Charitable And Other Purposes |series=Parliamentary Papers |volume=HC 1843 xxxi (91-VI) 465 |date=14 March 1843 |publisher=HMSO |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_VQSAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA17-PA18 |language=en |access-date=28 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210941/https://books.google.com/books?id=_VQSAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA17-PA18 |url-status=live }} positions merged in 1852 with that of Chief Clerk to the Secretary (in 1876 renamed Assistant Under-Secretary).

File:States Apartments, Dublin Castle, Ireland.jpg

For most of its existence the council met in the Council Chamber in Dublin Castle, where new councillors took their oath of office and from which Orders in Council were issued. A room over the chapel built by Philip Sidney in 1567 had "a very long table, furnished with stools at both sides and ends [where] sometimes sit in council about 60 or 64 privy councillors".Costello 1999 p.49; {{cite book |last1=Brereton |first1=William |title=Travels in Holland, the United Provinces, England, Scotland, and Ireland, M.DC.XXXIV.-M.DC.XXXV. |date=1844 |publisher=Chetham Society |series=Remains historical and literary connected with the Palatine counties of Lancaster and Chester published by the Chetham Society |volume=I |page=140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zEwJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA140 |language=en |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210943/https://books.google.com/books?id=zEwJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA140 |url-status=live }} Charles I sent the English Privy Council's rules of order to Ireland with some extra orders including "No man shall speak at the Council Board covered, save only the Deputy."{{cite book |editor1-last=Mahaffy |editor1-first=Robert Pentland |title=Calendar of the state papers relating to Ireland preserved in the Public Record Office |volume=1647–1660 |date=1900 |publisher=Eyre and Spottiswoode for HMSO |location=London |pages=314–316 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924091770861/page/n360}} In 1655 during the Protectorate the council moved to the old Custom House on Essex Quay.{{cite journal |last1=Wood |first1=Herbert |title=The Public Records of Ireland before and after 1922 |journal=Transactions of the Royal Historical Society |date=1930 |volume=13 |page=25 |doi=10.2307/3678487 |jstor=3678487}} After a 1711 fire destroyed its chamber and archives, it returned to Dublin Castle to a new Council Chamber above the archway linking the Upper and Lower Yards.Costello 1999 pp. 47, 57; {{cite book |last1=Dickson |first1=David |title=Dublin: The Making of a Capital City |publisher=Profile |isbn=978-1-84765-056-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BhglAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT113 |language=en |chapter=Injured Lady: 1690–1750 |date=May 2014 |access-date=18 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210946/https://books.google.com/books?id=BhglAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT113 |url-status=live }} By 1907 only members living near Dublin would receive a summons to ordinary meetings of the council.{{cite book |chapter-url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1907/mar/22/irish-privy-council-meetings |chapter=Irish Privy Council Meetings |title=Hansard |volume=HC Deb vol 171 |no-pp=y |page=c1282 |date=22 March 1907 |access-date=23 January 2021 |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210951/https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1907/mar/22/irish-privy-council-meetings |url-status=live }}

Members of the Privy Council of Ireland were entitled to the style "Right Honourable" (abbreviated "Rt Hon") in the same way as those of the Privy Council of Great Britain. In writing, the post-nominal letters "PC" could be used, or "PC (Ire)" to avoid confusion with any other privy council.

Most of the council's records were lost in either the 1711 fire or the 1922 destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland. Exceptions include the 1556–1571 council book bequeathed by Charles Haliday to the Royal Irish Academy and published in 1897 by the Historical Manuscripts Commission,{{cite book |editor-last=Gilbert |editor-first=John Thomas |title=The manuscripts of Charles Haliday, esq., of Dublin: Acts of the Privy council in Ireland, 1556-1571 [Command paper C.8364] |date=1897 |series=Historical Manuscripts Commission |volume=15th Report, Appendix, Part III |publisher=Eyre and Spottiswoode for HMSO |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/manuchashaliday00greauoft/page/ii/mode/2up}} and a portion of the 1392–3 proceedings owned by the Marquess of Ormond and published in 1877 in the Rolls Series.{{cite book |editor1-last=Graves |editor1-first=James |title=Roll of the Proceedings of the King's Council in Ireland for a Portion of the 16th year of the Reign of Richard II, 1392-1393 |date=1877 |series=Rolls Series |volume=69 |location=London |publisher=Longman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k2NEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR3 |access-date=29 January 2021 |language=la, fr, en |archive-date=26 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926210938/https://books.google.com/books?id=k2NEAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR3 |url-status=live }}; {{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Robert H. |title=A short guide to the principal classes of documents preserved in the Public record office, Dublin |date=1919 |publisher=London Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge |pages=18–27 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/shortguidetoprin00murruoft/page/18 |chapter=The Privy Council Office |series=Helps for Students of History |volume=7 }} A calendar of the 1581–1586 council book made in the 1860s by John P. Prendergast was published in 1967.{{cite journal |last1=Prendergast |first1=John P. |last2=Quinn |first2=David B. |title=Calendar of the Irish Council Book, 1581–1586 |journal=Analecta Hibernica |date=1967 |issue=24 |pages=91–180 |jstor=25511911 |issn=0791-6167}}

• Council of State (Ireland)
• Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and the Irish Free State
• List of Northern Ireland members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
• List of Privy Counsellors of Ireland
• Privy Council (Northern Ireland)

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last1=Costello |first1=Peter |title=Dublin Castle in the life of the Irish nation |date=1999 |publisher=Wolfhound |location=Dublin |isbn=978-0-86327-610-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/dublincastleinli00cost/ |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive }}
• {{cite book |last1=Crawford |first1=Jon G. |title=Anglicizing the Government of Ireland: The Irish Privy Council and the Expansion of Tudor Rule, 1556–1578 |year=1993 |publisher=Irish Academic Press |isbn=978-0-7165-2498-4 |language=en}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Hutchinson |first1=Mark A. |title=The Emergence of the State in Elizabethan Ireland and England, ca. 1575–99 |journal=The Sixteenth Century Journal |date=2014 |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=659–682 |doi=10.1086/SCJ24245958 |jstor=24245958 |s2cid=146831330 |issn=0361-0160}}
• {{cite book |last1=McDowell |first1=R. B. |title=The Irish administration, 1801–1914 |date=1976 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Conn |isbn=978-0-8371-8561-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/irishadministrat0000mcdo_j7o5}}
• {{cite book |last1=O'Flanagan |first1=James Roderick |title=The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of Ireland |date=1870 |publisher=Longmans, Green |location=London |language=en}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=iTtNPD5O5qoC Vol. I], [https://books.google.com/books?id=HSwsAAAAIAAJ Vol. II].
• {{cite book |last1=Quekett |first1=Arthur S. |title=The Constitution Of Northern Ireland |date=1933 |publisher=HMSO |location=Belfast |volume=II |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.277022/}}
• {{cite book |last1=Richardson |first1=H. G. |last2=Sayles |first2=G. O. |title=The Irish Parliament in the Middle ages |date=1964 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |url=https://archive.org/details/irishparliamenti0000rich |url-access=registration}} Chapters [https://archive.org/details/irishparliamenti0000rich/page/20 3 "Secretum Consilium"] and [https://archive.org/details/irishparliamenti0000rich/page/162 12 "The Privy Council in the Fifteenth Century"]
• {{cite book |first=Robert |last=Steele |title=Bibliography of royal proclamations of the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns and of others published under authority, 1485–1714; Vol. I |series=Bibliotheca Lindesiana |volume=V |date=1910 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |pages=cxvii–cxxxv |chapter-url=https://digital.nls.uk/bibliotheca-lindesiana-catalogues/archive/106225486 |via=National Library of Scotland |access-date=16 February 2021 |chapter=The Council of Ireland and its Proclamations}}

• {{cite book |first=Arthur |last=Phillips |title=A bibliography of royal proclamations of the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns and of others published under authority, 1485–1714; Vol II |series=Bibliotheca Lindesiana |volume=VI |date=1910 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |pages=592–598 |chapter-url=https://digital.nls.uk/bibliotheca-lindesiana-catalogues/archive/105794665 |chapter=Index : Ireland : Privy Council}}

• {{cite web |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/pcouncil/pcouncilI.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080607022603/http://leighrayment.com/pcouncil/pcouncilI.htm |archive-date=7 June 2008|title=Privy Councillors -- Ireland|last=Rayment|first=Leigh|date=23 January 2010 |url-status=usurped |access-date=19 August 2010}}
• [https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/new-viceroy-and-chief-secretary-arrive-in-ireland May 1918 photograph of a Privy Council meeting] presided over by Lord French

{{Kingdom of Ireland}}

Category:Members of the Privy Council of Ireland

Category:Privy councils

Category:Politics of pre-partition Ireland

Category:1922 disestablishments in Ireland