The governor of Northern Ireland was the principal officer and representative in
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
of the
British monarch
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiwi ...
. The office was established on 9 December 1922 and abolished on 18 July 1973.
Overview
The office of Governor of Northern Ireland was established on 9 December 1922 under
letters patent
Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...
to:
The governor was the successor to the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
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 Kingdo ...
in Northern Ireland, itself established on 3 May 1921. The office of the governor was abolished on 18 July 1973 under Section 32 of the
Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973
The Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which received the royal assent on 18 July 1973. The Act abolished the suspended Parliament of Northern Ireland and the post of Governor and made pro ...
. The
secretary of state for Northern Ireland
A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...
, a
cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
office that had been created in 1972, took over the functions of the governor on 20 December 1973 under Letters Patent.
Analogous to the
governor-general
Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
of a Commonwealth
Dominion
The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire.
"Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...
, the governor's formal power was ceremonial, exercised on the "advice" of the
Government of Northern Ireland
The government of Northern Ireland is, generally speaking, whatever political body exercises political authority over Northern Ireland. A number of separate systems of government exist or have existed in Northern Ireland.
Following the partitio ...
.
[Torrance 2020 p. 38] The government was technically an "executive committee" of the governor's
Privy Council of Northern Ireland
The Privy Council of Northern Ireland is a formal body of advisors to the sovereign and was a vehicle for the monarch's prerogative powers in Northern Ireland. It was modelled on the Privy Council of Ireland.
The council was created in 1922 as ...
, which was ceremonial and rarely met. The governor
summoned and
prorogued
A legislative session is the period of time in which a legislature, in both parliamentary and presidential systems, is convened for purpose of lawmaking, usually being one of two or more smaller divisions of the entire time between two elections ...
the
Parliament of Northern Ireland
The Parliament of Northern Ireland was the home rule legislature of Northern Ireland, created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, which sat from 7 June 1921 to 30 March 1972, when it was suspended because of its inability to restore ord ...
(latterly at
Stormont Castle
Stormont Castle is a manor house on the Stormont Estate in east Belfast which is home to the Northern Ireland Executive and the Executive Office. It is a Grade A listed building.
History
Stormont Castle was completed c.1830 and was reworked i ...
) and delivered the
speech from the throne
A speech from the throne, or throne speech, is an event in certain monarchies in which the reigning sovereign, or a representative thereof, reads a prepared speech to members of the nation's legislature when a session is opened, outlining th ...
at the Parliament's annual
State Opening (except for the first such in 1921, delivered in person by
George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
Born duri ...
).
The governor had possession of the
Great Seal of Northern Ireland
The Great Seal of Northern Ireland is the seal used for Northern Ireland. The great seal is in the possession of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Great Seal was created by the Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act 1922 ...
, and exercised the
prerogative of mercy.
The governor gave
royal assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...
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
Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...
in
local elections
In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...
would violate the 1920 act's prohibition of
religious discrimination
Religious discrimination is treating a person or group differently because of the particular beliefs which they hold about a religion. This includes instances when adherents of different religions, denominations or non-religions are treated u ...
. 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. This precedent dissuaded later London governments from interfering in Northern Ireland, although newly enacted Stormont bills were sent to the
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
for review as a matter of course.
A 1951 visit by the governor to
Londonderry Corporation was the focus of a
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
protest led by
Eddie McAteer
Eddie McAteer (25 June 1914 – 25 March 1986) was an Irish nationalist politician in Northern Ireland.
Born in Coatbridge, Scotland, McAteer's family moved to Derry in Northern Ireland while he was young. In 1930 he joined the Inland Revenu ...
against
gerrymandering by the unionist corporation against
Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
's nationalist majority. When
Viscount Brookeborough
Viscount Brookeborough, of Colebrooke in the County of Fermanagh, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1952 for the Ulster Unionist politician and Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Captain The Rt. Hon. Sir B ...
resigned as prime minister in 1963, governor
Baron Wakehurst
Baron Wakehurst, of Ardingly in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 29 June 1934 for the Conservative politician Gerald Loder, fifth son of Sir Robert Loder, 1st Baronet (see Loder Baronets f ...
was active in choosing
Terence O'Neill
Terence Marne O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of the Maine, PC (NI) (10 September 1914 – 12 June 1990), was the fourth prime minister of Northern Ireland and leader (1963–1969) of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). A moderate unionist, who sought to ...
as his successor. O'Neill in his memoirs compared this to
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
's appointment by
royal prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy, as belonging to the sovereign and which have become widely vested in th ...
of
Alec Douglas-Home
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), styled as Lord Dunglass between 1918 and 1951 and being The 14th Earl of Home from 1951 till 1963, was a British Conservative politician who se ...
as UK prime minister the same year. Ken Bloomfield, a leading Stormont civil servant in the 1960s, "never had any sense of the Governor as a significant factor in
orthern 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. In 1966, an early sign of Northern Ireland's
impending troubles came with the unpopularity among
loyalists
Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...
of Governor
Lord Erskine
The Lordship of Parliament of Erskine (Lord Erskine) was created around 1426 for Sir Robert Erskine. The sixth lord was created Earl of Mar in 1565, with which title (and the earldom of Kellie) the lordship then merged.
Lords Erskine (c. 1426)
* ...
, who had successfully lobbied for
a new Belfast bridge to be named after
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
rather than loyalist hero
Edward Carson
Edward Henry Carson, 1st Baron Carson, Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC, Privy Council of Ireland, PC (Ire) (9 February 1854 – 22 October 1935), from 1900 to 1921 known as Sir Edward Carson, was an Unionism in Ireland, Irish u ...
. A crowd led by
Ian Paisley
Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a Northern Irish loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and First ...
jostled and heckled Erskine and his wife as they left the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland is the sovereign and highest court of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and is thus the Church's governing body. The General Assembly normally meets annually, during the first full wee ...
.
Official residence
The official residence of the governor of Northern Ireland was
Hillsborough Castle
Hillsborough Castle is an official government residence in Northern Ireland. It is the official residence of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, in
County Down
County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...
. Following refurbishment of the Castle, the
Duke of Abercorn
The title Duke of Abercorn () is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1868 and bestowed upon James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Abercorn. Although the Dukedom is in the Peerage of Ireland, it refers to Abercorn, West Lothian, and th ...
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
A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a w ...
.
Governors of Northern Ireland (1922–73)
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.
Deputies
The 1922 "Instructions" sent alongside the
letters patent
Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...
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
The Great Seal of Northern Ireland is the seal used for Northern Ireland. The great seal is in the possession of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The Great Seal was created by the Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act 1922 ...
appointing a "Deputy or Deputies, Justice or Justices" during his absence. This emulated the practice of appointing
Lords Justices of Ireland
The Lords Justices (more formally the Lords Justices General and General Governors of Ireland) were deputies who acted collectively in the absence of the chief governor of Ireland (latterly the Lord Lieutenant) as head of the executive branch o ...
when the lord lieutenant was absent from Ireland. Each new governor upon taking office would select a slate of eligible deputies from among the
Privy Council of Northern Ireland
The Privy Council of Northern Ireland is a formal body of advisors to the sovereign and was a vehicle for the monarch's prerogative powers in Northern Ireland. It was modelled on the Privy Council of Ireland.
The council was created in 1922 as ...
, and at each of his subsequent absences a subset of these would be sworn in for its duration.
[Quekett 193]
Vol.2 pp.70–71
/ref> Many were Lord Chief Justice
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
or Lord Justice of Appeal
A Lord Justice of Appeal or Lady Justice of Appeal is a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, the Crown Court and other courts and tribunals. A Lord (or Lady) Justice ...
:
Denis Henry
Sir Denis Stanislaus Henry, 1st Baronet, (7 March 1864 – 1 October 1925), was an Irish lawyer and politician who became the first Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland.
Henry was born in Cahore, Draperstown, County Londonderry, the son o ...
,['']The Belfast Gazette
''The Belfast Gazette'' is a newspaper of record (Government gazette) of the Government of the United Kingdom, along with ''The London Gazette'' and ''The Edinburgh Gazette''. It is published by The Stationery Office (TSO), on behalf of His Majes ...
'
No. 81 p.17
William Moore,
James Andrews,
Anthony Babington
Anthony Babington (24 October 156120 September 1586) was an English gentleman convicted of plotting the assassination of Elizabeth I of England and conspiring with the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, for which he was hanged, drawn and quartere ...
,
John MacDermott, Baron MacDermott
John Clarke MacDermott, Baron MacDermott, , PC (NI) (12 April 1896 – 13 July 1979), was a Northern Irish politician and lawyer who was Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland from 1951 to 1971.
Biography
Born in 1896, MacDermott was educated ...
,[''The Belfast Gazette']
No. 1577 p.219
Samuel Clarke Porter
Samuel Clarke Porter (14 June 1875 – 10 July 1956) was a judge and politician in Northern Ireland.
Biography
Born in Portrush, Porter studied at the Coleraine Academical Institution, Methodist College Belfast and Queen's University Belfast, ...
.
Others were Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
s and/or county lieutenants:
Robert Sharman-Crawford
Robert Gordon Sharman-Crawford PC (8 September 1853 – 20 March 1934) was a unionist politician in Northern Ireland.
Sharman-Crawford studied at Trinity College, Dublin before becoming an officer in the British Army and managing the family ...
,[''The Belfast Gazette']
No. 161 p.880
Robert David Perceval-Maxwell,
Henry Armstrong
Henry Jackson Jr. (December 12, 1912 – October 24, 1988) was an American professional boxer and a world boxing champion who fought under the name Henry Armstrong.
Armstrong was one of the few fighters to win in three or more different divisi ...
,[''The Belfast Gazette']
No. 579 p.403
Sir Thomas Dixon, 2nd Baronet
Sir Thomas James Dixon, 2nd Baronet, PC (NI) (29 May 1868 – 10 May 1950), was a Northern Ireland politician.
Dixon was the eldest son of Sir Daniel Dixon, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of Belfast, and his wife, Eliza (née Agnew). He succeeded his fa ...
,[''The Belfast Gazette']
No. 705 p.451
Maurice McCausland
Maurice Marcus McCausland (1872–14 January 1938) was a landowner and political figure in Ireland.
McCausland was born in Drenagh, County Londonderry, the grandson of St Andrew St John, 15th Baron St John of Bletso. He studied at Eton College ...
,
Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey
Captain Francis Charles Adelbert Henry Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey (26 November 1883 – 11 January 1961), styled Viscount Newry until 1915, was a Royal Navy officer and Anglo-Irish peer.
In 1916 he was appointed as an Irish representative ...
.[''The Belfast Gazette']
No. 1265 p.217
See also
* Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
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 Kingdo ...
* Governor-General of the Irish Free State
The Governor-General of the Irish Free State ( ga, Seanascal Shaorstát Éireann) 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 wa ...
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
* {{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
External links
* Donal Lowry
"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
The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in w ...
'' blog
Government of Northern Ireland
History of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
1922 establishments in the United Kingdom
1973 disestablishments in the United Kingdom