The Local Government Board for Ireland was an agency of the Dublin Castle administration that liaised with the various local authorities in Ireland. It was created in 1872 and lasted until Partition in 1921–22.

History

The Board was created under the Local Government Board (Ireland) Act 1872, mirroring the

Local Government Board The Local Government Board (LGB) was a British Government supervisory body overseeing local administration in England and Wales from 1871 to 1919. The LGB was created by the Local Government Board Act 1871 (C. 70) and took over the public health a ...

created for

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is En ...

in 1871. Upon its establishment, the Board took over the functions of the

Irish Poor Law The Irish Poor Laws were a series of Acts of Parliament intended to address social instability due to widespread and persistent poverty in Ireland. While some legislation had been introduced by the pre-Union Parliament of Ireland prior to the ...

Commissioners with respect to Boards of Guardians of Poor Law Unions, and also dealt with urban municipal government (

town commissioners Town commissioners were elected local government bodies that existed in urban areas in Ireland from the 19th century until 2002. Larger towns with commissioners were converted to urban districts by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, with ...

and

borough corporation A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally owne ...

s). Its headquarters were in the Custom House, Dublin. There were five Board members: two political ''ex-officio'' members, the

Chief Secretary for Ireland The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", from the early 19th century u ...

(who was president) and the

Under-Secretary for Ireland The Under-Secretary for Ireland (Permanent Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) was the permanent head (or most senior civil servant) of the British administration in Ireland prior to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 ...

; and three permanent technocratic members, including the vice-president and the medical commissioner (a qualified physician for addressing

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

issues). The first three permanent members were the three final Poor Law Commissioners. Generally the vice-president was in effective charge with the political members absent; but in

Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the ...

's presidency there were tensions. Dublin Castle tried to maintain a balance of Catholic and Protestant Board members. The

Congested Districts Board for Ireland The Congested Districts Board for Ireland was established by The Rt. Hon. A.J. Balfour, P.C., M.P., the Chief Secretary, in 1891 to alleviate poverty and congested living conditions in the west and parts of the northwest of Ireland. William ...

was set up separately in 1891 to deal specifically with areas with large numbers of small uneconomic farms. After the

Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. c. 37) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that established a system of local government in Ireland similar to that already created for England, ...

, the Local Government Board dealt with the new county and district councils, including the initial recommendations for county boundary adjustments under the 1898 act. Many local councils were

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: Th ...

-controlled and these frequently resented the Board, regarding it as bureaucratic and imperialist.

Supersession

County and district councils controlled by

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gr ...

after the 1920 local elections bypassed the Local Government Board in favour of the self-proclaimed

Irish Republic The Irish Republic ( ga, Poblacht na hÉireann or ) was an unrecognised revolutionary state that declared its independence from the United Kingdom in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of Ireland, but by ...

's Department of Local Government, with

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 Ir ...

as Minister. On 25 May 1921, near the end of the Republic's guerrilla war, the Custom House was burned out by Dublin Brigade of the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

, destroying most of the Board's records. After Partition, in Northern Ireland the Board's functions passed to the

Department of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

in 1921 and the Department of Health and Local Government on its creation in 1944. In 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 Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924 formally transferred the Board's functions to the Department of Local Government and Public Health, whose successor, the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, is still based in the Custom House.

References

Sources

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Citations

{{reflist

External links

author "Local Government Board for Ireland"
from

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

, includes all annual reports 1872–1921 1872 establishments in Ireland 1924 disestablishments in Ireland History of local government in Ireland History of local government in the United Kingdom History of Ireland (1801–1923)