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A number of legislatures have existed in Ireland since mediaeval times. The first Irish legislature was the Parliament of Ireland. However, after its abolition, in 1801, there was no legislature in Ireland, of any kind until 1919. Since that date a number of legislatures have existed on the island.


Parliament of Ireland

This body consisted of the King of Ireland and two chambers: the
Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a h ...
and the Irish House of Lords) which existed in
Lordship of Ireland The Lordship of Ireland ( ga, Tiarnas na hÉireann), sometimes referred to retroactively as Norman Ireland, was the part of Ireland ruled by the King of England (styled as "Lord of Ireland") and controlled by loyal Anglo-Norman lords between ...
(1171–1541) and the
Kingdom of Ireland The Kingdom of Ireland ( ga, label=Classical Irish, an Ríoghacht Éireann; ga, label=Modern Irish, an Ríocht Éireann, ) was a monarchy on the island of Ireland that was a client state of England and then of Great Britain. It existed fro ...
(1541–1800). This parliament operated under major restrictions, including Poynings' Law and the Penal Laws, imposed by the English and British
Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
, by the English and
British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremacy ...
and by the
King-in-Council The King-in-Council or the Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it would mean the monarch exercising executive authority, usually in the form of ap ...
. Many of these restrictions were removed in 1782, producing what became known as the Constitution of 1782. The Kingdom of Ireland merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. It was subject to an Irish executive, presided over by the English/British selected
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 Kin ...
(previously called the 'Lord Deputy'), which was ultimately answerable not to it but to the English/British Government in London. Over the centuries, the Irish parliament met in a number of locations both inside and outside Dublin. Among its most famous meeting places were Dublin Castle, the ''Bluecoat School'', ''Chichester House'' and its final permanent home, the
Irish Houses of Parliament Parliament House ( ga, Tithe na Parlaiminte) in Dublin, Ireland, was home to the Parliament of Ireland, and since 1803 has housed the Bank of Ireland. It was the world's first purpose-built bicameral parliament house. It is located at Colleg ...
in College Green, also sometimes called the Irish Parliament House. It is now generally called the "Bank of Ireland", an institution which took ownership of the building in 1804 and used it as its headquarters until the 1970s, when a new headquarters was built. The former seat of parliament remains a branch of the bank. In 1642–49, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, there was brief experiment in independent Irish government known as
Confederate Ireland Confederate Ireland, also referred to as the Irish Catholic Confederation, was a period of Irish Catholic self-government between 1642 and 1649, during the Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristocrats, landed gentry, clergy and military ...
. Its legislature, the General Assembly, met once a year in Kilkenny to review the work of the executive branch (which it appointed) - the Supreme Council.


Dáil Éireann (1919–1922)

This was a revolutionary parliament formed by Irish MPs elected to the British House of Commons, who assembled in Dublin in January 1919. Dáil Éireann operated under a temporary constitution, called the
Dáil Constitution The Constitution of Dáil Éireann ( ga, Bunreacht Dála Éireann), more commonly known as the Dáil Constitution, was the constitution of the 1919–22 Irish Republic. It was adopted by the First Dáil at its first meeting on 21 January 1919 and ...
, which created a prime minister called the President of Dáil Éireann (also known as Príomh Aire) and a Ministry of Dáil Éireann. During the period from August 1921 to January 1922, Éamon de Valera used the title President of the Irish Republic. The Dáil met in two locations, in the Round Room of the Mansion House, and later in the then University College Dublin campus in Earslfort Terrace in Dublin, where its famously ratified the
Anglo-Irish Treaty The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the ...
in December 1921.


Parliament of Southern Ireland (1920–1922)

The Parliament of Southern Ireland was created by the
Government of Ireland Act 1920 The Government of Ireland Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5 c. 67) 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 ...
, and consisted of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland and the Senate. This parliament did not in reality function, except to ratify the Anglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922. In 1922, a government theoretically answerable to the House of Commons of Southern Ireland, called the
Provisional Government of Ireland The Provisional Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas Sealadach na hÉireann) 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 be ...
, was created under Michael Collins. The House of Commons was officially based in the Royal College of Science in Dublin, now the Irish
Government Buildings Government Buildings ( ga, Tithe an Rialtais) is a large Edwardian building enclosing a quadrangle on Merrion Street in Dublin, Ireland, in which several key offices of the Government of Ireland are located. Among the offices of State located ...
. However the Commons only met on a handful of occasions, primarily to ratify the Treaty in January 1922 and confirm Michael Collins as head of the Provisional Government.


Oireachtas of the Irish Free State (1922–1937)

This legislature consisted of the King and two chambers: the Free State Dáil and the Free State Seanad (Senate of Ireland). It created by the
Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) 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 ...
's 1922 Constitution. The Seanad and the King's role in the Oireachtas were both abolished by constitutional amendment in 1936. The executive was answerable to Dáil Éireann, was called the Executive Council and was presided over by a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council. The Provisional Government under
W. T. Cosgrave William Thomas Cosgrave (5 June 1880 – 16 November 1965) was an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as the president of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1932, leader of the Opposition in both the Free State and Ire ...
hired the use of the main lecture theatre of the Royal Dublin Society in its headquarters in
Leinster House Leinster House ( ga, Teach Laighean) is the seat of the Oireachtas, the parliament of Ireland. Originally, it was the ducal palace of the Dukes of Leinster. Since 1922, it is a complex of buildings, of which the former ducal palace is the core, ...
, a formal ducal palace, to enable a formal state opening of the new two chamber Oireachtas of the new Irish Free State and the delivery of the speech from the throne by the new Governor-General of the Irish Free State, Tim Healy in December 1922. In 1924, the new Free State under Cosgrave bought Leinster House as a temporary seat of parliament, pending the erection or conversion of an alternative. One major contender for the location was
Royal Hospital Kilmainham The Royal Hospital Kilmainham ( ga, Ospidéal Ríochta Chill Mhaighneann) in Kilmainham, Dublin, is a former 17th-century hospital at Kilmainham in Ireland. The structure now houses the Irish Museum of Modern Art. History A priory, founded in 11 ...
, a former soldiers' home that ultimately became a modern art gallery.


Oireachtas Éireann (since 1937)

This Oireachtas consists of the President of Ireland and two chambers: the modern Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. It was established by the 1937 Constitution. The executive is called the Government and is answerable to the Dáil. It is presided over by a prime minister called the Taoiseach. Though plans were periodically discussed for the erection of a new parliament building (a site was even considered in the
Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park ( ga, Páirc an Fhionnuisce) is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tre ...
), parliament has remained in Leinster House, to which additional offices were added in the 1950s and most recently in the year 2000.


Legislatures in Northern Ireland

* Parliament of Northern Ireland - a home rule parliament of 1920–1972. * Sunningdale Northern Ireland Assembly - a home rule assembly established in 1972. *
Northern Ireland Assembly (1982) The Northern Ireland Assembly established in 1982 represented an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to restore the devolution to Northern Ireland which had been suspended 10 years previously. The Assembly was abolished in 1986. Origins The Assem ...
- a home rule assembly established in 1982. * Modern Northern Ireland Assembly - a home rule assembly established in 1998.


Further reading

*Alan J. Ward, ''The Irish Constitutional Tradition: Responsible Government and Modern Ireland 1782-1992'' () {{DEFAULTSORT:Historical Irish Legislatures Legal history of Ireland