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The Privy Council of Northern Ireland was a privy council advising the Governor of Northern Ireland in his role as viceroy of the British Crown, in particular in the exercise of the monarch's prerogative powers. The council was the successor within Northern Ireland of the Privy Council of Ireland, which offered advice to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
The Government of Ireland Act 1920 effected the 1921 partition of Ireland by creating separate home rule jurisdictions of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. The 1920 act preserved some all-island institutions, among them the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council of Ireland. Thus, the first Parliament of Northern Ireland was summoned after the 1921 election by the Lord Lieutenant, and the first Government of Northern Ireland comprised members of the Privy Council of Ireland. The failure of Southern Ireland in the face of militant republican opposition led to its replacement by the Irish Free State in 1922. The Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act 1922 abolished the Lord Lieutenant and created the Governor and Privy Council of Northern Ireland to take over their respective functions in that part of Ireland. In the other part, the Executive Council of the Irish Free State took over from the Privy Council of Ireland, [1] which was not formally abolished but became obsolete. The New Testament volume used to swear in members of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland was the same one previously used for the Privy Council of Ireland. [2]
John Andrew Oliver, a senior Northern Ireland civil servant, [3] described the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in 1978 as "an extremely formal body that performed mysterious functions behind firmly closed doors". [4] The Council's proceedings were pure formalities, with no debate or discussion. Not all councillors attended all meetings, which were usually met at Hillsborough Castle, the official residence of the Governor. The Governor was not ex officio a member of the council but he (or deputising Lords Justices) presided at its meetings.
In London, the "King in Council" (the King advised by the UK Privy Council) performed such ceremonial functions as summoning, opening, recalling, proroguing, and dissolving the UK Parliament and issuing Orders in Council to effect secondary legislation; similarly, in Northern Ireland the "Governor in Council" performed corresponding functions for its parliament, and issued Orders in Council on devolved matters. The council was also the authority for making rules of court for the Courts of Northern Ireland. [5] The Governor's throne speech was formally ordered to be presented to Parliament by members of the Commons and Senate who were Privy Councillors. [6]
Just as the Cabinet of the United Kingdom is formally a committee of the UK Privy Council, so the Government of Northern Ireland was formally the Executive Committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland; [7] [8] newly nominated ministers were sworn into the council before formally joining the government. [9] [8] Another committee of the council was inherited under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and dealt with petitions relating to Queen's University Belfast. [10] Lords Justices for the government of Northern Ireland, deputising in the absence of the Governor, were sworn at a meeting of the council. [11]
The Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the Northern Ireland Privy Council were appointed by the Governor, [12] and also served as Clerk and Deputy Clerk of the Cabinet Offices within the Department of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. [8] There was no privy seal. [13]
The last appointments to the Privy Council of Northern Ireland were made in 1971. In consequence of the Troubles, the Heath UK government introduced direct rule under the Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972, by suspending Northern Ireland's devolved administration and transferring its powers to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, a new position in the UK Cabinet. The Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 formally abolished most of the suspended institutions, including the Governorship. [14] The Privy Council of Northern Ireland was not abolished, but new appointments were prohibited, [15] and all of its functions were transferred to the Secretary of State. [16] Existing members retained "their existing rank and style and obligations". [17] Lists of living members continued to be included in Whitaker's Almanack until 2018 [18] and Dod's Parliamentary Companion until 2001. [19] In 1994, the minutes of about 300 council meetings were deposited with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. [20]
The 1976 majority report of the Northern Ireland Constitutional Convention recommended "That there should be a Privy Council of Northern Ireland in which some places should be offered to leading members of major opposition parties." As an essentially unionist document, the Callaghan UK government did not accept its recommendations. [21] John Andrew Oliver suggested in 1978 that any revival should be a "Governor’s Council" with "a wider membership and a door much more open to publicity", including more Catholic/nationalists. [4]
Members were appointed for life, although the Governor was empowered to remove them. [22] They are entitled to use the prefix The Right Honourable , and to use the post-nominal letters PC (NI). Two members are still living as of May 2022 [update] : Lord Kilclooney (appointed 1970) and Robin Bailie (appointed 1971).
Apart from ministers in the Government of Northern Ireland, any appointment by the Governor to the Privy Council of Northern Ireland required the approval of the UK Home Secretary. [23] Other officers typically appointed included the Commons Speaker, Senate Speaker, senior judges and senior civil servants.
In 1970, the Northern Ireland Nationalist Party submitted to the Royal Commission on the Constitution, "Not since [ Denis Henry ] the Catholic Lord Chief Justice died in 1925 has there been a Catholic member af the Privy Council of Northern Ireland which ostensibly is a non-partisan, non-political body advising the Governor in the interests of all the people." [24] Another Catholic, G. B. Newe, was appointed on 27 October 1971 when becoming minister of state in the Faulkner ministry. [25] Newe's was not a cabinet ministry and did not require him to be a Privy Counsellor, but both appointments were intended by Brian Faulkner as a conciliatory gesture to Catholics.
The Privy Council of Northern Ireland remains, but no further appointments to it are to be made.}}
The Privy Council is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its members, known as privy counsellors, are mainly senior politicians who are current or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
The Irish Free State, also known by its Irish name Saorstát Éireann, was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between the forces of the Irish Republic – the Irish Republican Army (IRA) – and British Crown forces.
The governor-general of the Irish Free State was the official representative of the sovereign of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1936. By convention, the office was largely ceremonial. Nonetheless, it was controversial, as many Irish Nationalists regarded the existence of the office as offensive to republican principles and a symbol of continued British involvement in Irish affairs, despite the Governor-General having no connection to the British Government after 1931. For this reason, the office's role was diminished over time by the Irish Government.
The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act's long title was "An Act to provide for the better government of Ireland"; it is also known as the Fourth Home Rule Bill or (inaccurately) as the Fourth Home Rule Act and informally known as the Partition Act. The Act was intended to partition Ireland into two self-governing polities: the six north-eastern counties were to form "Northern Ireland", while the larger part of the country was to form "Southern Ireland". Both territories were to remain part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and provision was made for their future reunification through a Council of Ireland. The Act was passed by the British Parliament in November 1920, received royal assent in December and came into force on 3 May 1921.
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 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. 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.
A lord-lieutenant is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility over the local militia was removed. However, it was not until 1921 that they formally lost the right to call upon able-bodied men to fight when needed.
The Lord President of the Council is the presiding officer of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the fourth of the Great Officers of State, ranking below the Lord High Treasurer but above the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal. The Lord President usually attends and is responsible for chairing the meetings of the Privy Council, presenting business for the approval of the Sovereign.
The Right Honourable is an honorific style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations. The term is predominantly used today as a style associated with the holding of certain senior public offices in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and, to a lesser extent, Australia.
The Provisional Government of Ireland was the provisional government for the administration of Southern Ireland from 16 January 1922 to 5 December 1922. It was a transitional administration for the period between the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the establishment of the Irish Free State. Its legitimacy was disputed by the Anti-Treaty members of Dáil Éireann.
The governor of Northern Ireland was the principal officer and representative in Northern Ireland of the British monarch. The office was established on 9 December 1922 and abolished on 18 July 1973.
The Executive Council was the cabinet and de facto executive branch of government of the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Formally, executive power was vested in the Governor-General on behalf of the King. In practice, however, it was the Council that governed, since the Governor-General was bound to act on its advice. The Executive Council included a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council and a deputy prime minister called the Vice-President. A member of the Council was called an executive minister, as distinct from an extern minister who had charge of a department without being in the Council.
His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executive power in conjunction with the chief governor of Ireland, who was viceroy of the British monarch. The council evolved in the Lordship of Ireland on the model of the Privy Council of England; as the English council advised the king in person, so the Irish council advised the viceroy, who in medieval times was a powerful Lord Deputy. In the early modern period the council gained more influence at the expense of the viceroy, but in the 18th century lost influence to the Parliament of Ireland. In the post-1800 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Irish Privy Council and viceroy Lord Lieutenant had formal and ceremonial power, while policy formulation rested with a Chief Secretary directly answerable to the British cabinet. The council comprised senior public servants, judges, and parliamentarians, and eminent men appointed for knowledge of public affairs or as a civic honour.
The Court for Crown Cases Reserved or Court for Criminal Cases Reserved was an appellate court established in 1848 for criminal cases in England and Wales to hear references from the trial judge. It did not allow a retrial, only judgment on a point of law. Neither did it create a right to appeal and only a few selected cases were heard every year.
The Lords Justices were deputies who acted collectively in the absence of the chief governor of Ireland as head of the executive branch of the Dublin Castle administration. Lords Justices were sworn in at a meeting of the Privy Council of Ireland.
The Executive Committee or the Executive Committee for Northern Ireland was the government of Northern Ireland created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Generally known as either the Cabinet or the Government, the executive committee existed from 1922 to 1972. It exercised executive authority formally vested in the British monarch in relation to devolved matters.
Borough status is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district. In Scotland, similarly chartered communities were known as royal burghs, although the status is no longer granted.
The Court of Appeal in Ireland was created by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 as the final appellate court within Ireland, then under British rule. A last appeal from this court could be taken to the House of Lords in London.
The High Sheriff of Belfast is a title and position which was created in 1900 under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, with Sir James Henderson the first holder. Like other high sheriff positions, it is largely a ceremonial post today. The current high sheriff is Councillor Sammy Douglas, who took office in 2024.
The Great Seal of Ireland was the seal used until 1922 by the Dublin Castle administration to authenticate important state documents in Ireland, in the same manner as the Great Seal of the Realm in England. The Great Seal of Ireland was used from at least the 1220s in the Lordship of Ireland and the ensuing Kingdom of Ireland, and remained in use when the island became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922), just as the Great Seal of Scotland remained in use after the Act of Union 1707. After 1922, the single Great Seal of Ireland was superseded by the separate Great Seal of the Irish Free State and Great Seal of Northern Ireland for the respective jurisdictions created by the partition of Ireland.
Until 1933, Article 66 of the Constitution of the Irish Free State permitted appeals of decisions of the Supreme Court of the Irish Free State to be made to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in London. This was a requirement of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which underpinned the creation of the Irish Free State. The treaty specified that the Free State's constitutional status would be the same as Canada, another British Dominion, whose local courts allowed further appeal to the JCPC.