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Governor of Northern Ireland

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Governor of Northern Ireland
StyleExcellency
ResidenceHillsborough Castle
AppointerBritish Monarch
PrecursorLord Lieutenant of Ireland
Formation9 December 1922
First holderThe 3rd Duke of Abercorn
Final holderThe Lord Grey of Naunton
Abolished18 July 1973
SuccessionSecretary of State for Northern Ireland

Thegovernor of Northern Irelandwas the principal officer and representative inNorthern Irelandof theBritish monarch.The office was established on 9 December 1922 and abolished on 18 July 1973.

Overview[edit]

The office of Governor of Northern Ireland was established on 9 December 1922 underletters patentto:[1]

do and execute in due manner as respects Northern Ireland all things which by virtue of the[1920] Actand our said Letters Patent of 27 April 1921 or otherwise belonged to the office ofLord Lieutenantat the time of the passing of theIrish Free State Constitution Act 1922.

The governor was the successor to theLord Lieutenant of Irelandin Northern Ireland, itself established on 3 May 1921.[a]The office of the governor was abolished on 18 July 1973 under Section 32 of theNorthern Ireland Constitution Act 1973.[3]Thesecretary of state for Northern Ireland,acabinetoffice that had been created in 1972, took over the functions of the governor on 20 December 1973 under Letters Patent.[4]

Analogous to thegovernor-generalof a CommonwealthDominion,the governor's formal power was ceremonial, exercised on the "advice" of theGovernment of Northern Ireland.[5][6]The government was technically an "executive committee" of the governor'sPrivy Council of Northern Ireland,which was ceremonial and rarely met.[7]The governorsummonedandproroguedtheParliament of Northern Ireland(latterly atStormont Castle) and delivered thespeech from the throneat the Parliament's annualState Opening(except for the first such in 1921, delivered in person byGeorge V).[5]The governor had possession of theGreat Seal of Northern Ireland,[8]and exercised theprerogative of mercy.[5]

The governor gaveroyal assentto bills passed by Stormont.[5]While he had the formal power todisallow or reservelegislation, this was never exercised. The only instance of reservation in relation to Stormont was made byViscount FitzAlan,the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, shortly before the office was replaced by that of Governor of Northern Ireland. FitzAlan referred theLocal Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1922to theHome Officein London from concern that its abolition ofsingle transferable voteinlocal electionswould violate the 1920 act's prohibition ofreligious discrimination.The Home Office agreed with FitzAlan but theLaw ministryadvised FitzAlan to assent regardless, afterJames Craigthreatened the resignation ofhis ministryin Stormont.[9]This precedent dissuaded later London governments from interfering in Northern Ireland, although newly enacted Stormont bills were sent to theHome Secretaryfor review as a matter of course.[5][10]

A 1951 visit by the governor toLondonderry Corporationwas the focus of anationalistprotest led byEddie McAteeragainstgerrymandering by the unionist corporationagainstDerry's nationalist majority.[11]WhenViscount Brookeboroughresigned as prime minister in 1963, governorBaron Wakehurstwas active in choosingTerence O'Neillas his successor.[12]O'Neill in his memoirs compared this toElizabeth II's appointment byroyal prerogativeofAlec Douglas-Homeas UK prime minister the same year.[13]Ken Bloomfield, a leading Stormont civil servant in the 1960s, "never had any sense of the Governor as a significant factor in [Northern Ireland prime ministers'] plans or calculations".[14]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.[15]In 1966, an early sign of Northern Ireland'simpending troublescame with the unpopularity amongloyalistsof GovernorLord Erskine,who had successfully lobbied fora new Belfast bridgeto be named afterElizabeth IIrather than loyalist heroEdward Carson.A crowd led byIan Paisleyjostled and heckled Erskine and his wife as they left theGeneral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.[16][17]

Official residence[edit]

The official residence of the governor of Northern Ireland wasHillsborough CastleinCounty Down.Following refurbishment of the Castle, theDuke of Abercorntook 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 thesecretary of state for Northern Ireland.[18]

Governors of Northern Ireland (1922–73)[edit]

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.

No. Portrait Name
(Birth–Death) 		Term of office Monarch Prime Minister
Took office Left office Time in office
1 Duke of Abercorn
(1869–1953) 		12 December1922 6 September1945 22 years, 268 days George V
Edward VIII
George VI 		Craigavon
Andrews
Brooke
2 Earl Granville
(1880–1953) 		7 September1945 1 December1952 7 years, 85 days George VI
Elizabeth II 		Brooke
3 Lord Wakehurst
(1895–1970) 		3 December1952 1 December1964 11 years, 364 days Elizabeth II Brookeborough
O'Neill
4 Lord Erskine of Rerrick
(1893–1980) 		3 December1964 2 December1968 3 years, 365 days O'Neill
5 Lord Grey of Naunton
(1910–1999) 		3 December1968 18 July1973 4 years, 205 days O'Neill
Chichester-Clark
Faulkner

Deputies[edit]

The 1922 "Instructions" sent alongside theletters patentestablishing 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 theGreat Seal of Northern Irelandappointing a "Deputy or Deputies, Justice or Justices" during his absence. This emulated the practice of appointingLords Justices of Irelandwhen the lord lieutenant was absent from Ireland. Each new governor upon taking office would select a slate of eligible deputies from among thePrivy Council of Northern Ireland,and at each of his subsequent absences a subset of these would be sworn in for its duration.[19]Many wereLord Chief JusticeorLord Justice of Appeal: Denis Henry,[20][21] William Moore,[20][21][22][23] James Andrews,[20][21][22][23][24] Anthony Babington,[24] John MacDermott, Baron MacDermott,[25] Samuel Clarke Porter.[25] Others wereSenatorsand/orcounty lieutenants: Robert Sharman-Crawford,[21][22] Robert David Perceval-Maxwell,[21] Henry Armstrong,[22][23] Sir Thomas Dixon, 2nd Baronet,[23][24] Maurice McCausland,[23] Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey.[24][25]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^3 May 1921 was the"appointed day"under theGovernment of Ireland Act 1920,upon which the Parliaments of Northern Ireland andSouthern Irelandwere established.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^"House of Lords, Northern Ireland Bill, Memorandum by the Northern Ireland Office".Archived fromthe originalon 5 June 2011.
  2. ^"Order in Council under the Government of Ireland Act, 1920 Fixing Appointed Days for Certain Purposes", SR&O 1921, No. 533
  3. ^Moody, T. W.; Cróinín, Dáibhí; Martin, F. X.; Byrne, F. J. (1976).A New History of Ireland by Theodore William Moody, Francis John.ISBN978-0-19-821745-9.Retrieved5 November2016.
  4. ^"Northern Ireland Act 1998".Legislation.co.uk.Retrieved26 September2022.
  5. ^abcdeTorrance 2020 p. 38
  6. ^Bloomfield 2007 p. 9
  7. ^Torrance 2020 pp. 37, 40
  8. ^Torrance 2020 p. 40
  9. ^Torrance 2020 p. 39
  10. ^Bloomfield 2007 pp. 9–11
  11. ^Phoenix, Eamon."McAteer, Edward Gerard (Eddie)".Dictionary of Irish Biography.Royal Irish Academy.Retrieved10 October2022.
  12. ^Mulholland, Marc."Faulkner, (Arthur) Brian Deane".Dictionary of Irish Biography.Royal Irish Academy.Retrieved10 October2022.
  13. ^O'Neill, Terence (1972).The Autobiography of Terence O'Neill.London: Rupert Hart-Davis. p. 42.ISBN978-0-246-10586-8.Obviously the decision was the Governor's alone, for in those days Unionist Prime Ministers were selected in the same way as their Conservative counterparts in Britain, where the Queen used to send for the person she thought most suitable.
  14. ^Bloomfield 2007 p. 13
  15. ^Bloomfield 2007 p. 14
  16. ^Bloomfield 2007 p. 165–166
  17. ^O'Callaghan, Margaret; O'Donnell, Catherine (1 June 2006)."The Northern Ireland Government, the 'Paisleyite Movement' and Ulster Unionism in 1966"(PDF).Irish Political Studies.21(2): 203–222.doi:10.1080/07907180600707607.
  18. ^"Hillsborough Castle opens its royal doors to all".Financial Times. 19 April 2019. Archived fromthe originalon 10 December 2022.Retrieved4 May2021.
  19. ^Quekett 1933Vol.2 pp.70–71
  20. ^abcThe Belfast GazetteNo. 81 p.17Archived2021-09-25 at theWayback Machine
  21. ^abcdeThe Belfast GazetteNo. 161 p.880Archived2020-08-01 at theWayback Machine
  22. ^abcdThe Belfast GazetteNo. 579 p.403Archived2021-09-25 at theWayback Machine
  23. ^abcdeThe Belfast GazetteNo. 705 p.451Archived2021-09-25 at theWayback Machine
  24. ^abcdThe Belfast GazetteNo. 1265 p.217Archived2021-09-25 at theWayback Machine
  25. ^abcThe Belfast GazetteNo. 1577 p.219Archived2021-09-25 at theWayback Machine

Sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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