government and administration. The minimal administration of an early Christian petty
king or
rí tuaithe is given in the Old Irish
law tracts as a
brethem (brehon or judge), a
rechtaire or seneschal of his palace, and a group of freed slaves or pardoned criminals who served as his bodyguard. However, the 11th‐century commentaries dealing with kings of larger territories refer to more than one
rechtaire, to counsellors and foreign mercenaries, mercenaries of native origin, domestic servants, and
maoir, or bailiffs who collected the kings' tributes and dues.
The establishment of English authority in parts of Ireland following the
Anglo‐Norman invasion, and the view (stated explicitly by King
John) that English law should apply in Ireland, produced a system of royal government which mirrored that in England. The king appointed a
justiciar, who headed the administration and exercised royal powers, subject to the king's right to intervene when he saw fit. The justiciar was advised by a
council, which had a ministerial core but expanded to include magnates and leading churchmen as business demanded. From the later 13th century he summoned
parliaments. By 1300 there was a secretariat, headed by the
chancellor, who kept the king's seal for Ireland and normally travelled with the justiciar. An
exchequer, presided over by the treasurer, sat in Dublin to hear the accounts of local officials; it was subject to periodic audits by Westminster. The legal establishment included judges attached to the peripatetic
justiciar's court and to a court of Common Pleas which sat in Dublin (see
courts of law;
judiciary). At local level
sheriffs and county courts existed in the colonized areas from Louth to Cork and Kerry, though in places royal rights were devolved to lords who held
liberty jurisdictions. Alongside the sheriffs there were other local officials such as
coroners and, through time,
keepers of the peace. Central government was staffed by a mixture of appointees from England and Anglo‐Irishmen, while local offices tended to be the preserve of settler families; the native Irish had no part in the system.
The formal structure of government changed little in the later Middle Ages. There was some diminution of supervision by Westminster, as the
king's lieutenants, appointed periodically from 1361, were given wide powers over patronage and revenues. More significantly, the contraction of the colony meant that areas beyond the future
Pale had increasingly tenuous links with Dublin, though their position was regularized to some extent by the existence of liberties such as Tipperary and Kerry, the awarding of wide judicial commissions to magnates, and the enlargement of urban privileges.
Anglo‐Norman conquest and colonization left a series of districts still under Gaelic rule, though initially subject to the English king or to some baron. These varied in size from a
tuath occupying about a fifth of a modern county (e.g. O'Molloy of Feara Ceall) to an overlordship extending across two or three counties (
O'Neill of Tír Eógain), and their administrative staff varied accordingly. Originally officers directing the king's household and his military campaigns were drawn from his hereditary vassal nobility, who were rewarded with recognized perquisites in relation to tribute, ransoms, etc. Rival candidates for chieftainship recruited different members from the same families to serve as their
aes grádha (men of rank, or trust). In smaller lordships the court poet or
file, the king's brehon or judge, and the leech or doctor also came from hereditary local families, though the last provincial kings in the early 13th century used clerics as chancellors and notaries, and men of lower social status as
maoir.
As Irish armies became increasingly mercenary, chiefs employed a professional commander or constable (
constábla), normally a Scottish captain of
gallowglasses, maintained by grants of land and billeting rights. Supervision of the army's billeting, equipment, and discipline was done by the marshal or
marasgál, sometimes a hereditary post. Policing duties in the larger lordships were carried out by a small troop of ‘household
kerns’, the
ceithearn tighe, again sometimes with hereditary commanders. Over major internal disputes, submission, or war, the chief consulted his
oireacht or vassal nobility, and held an
aonach agus ardoireachtas (see
óenach) or general assembly of his territory periodically at a customary open air meeting place, where lawsuits were settled and impositions of taxation announced.
Government in early modern Ireland was still essentially royal government and officials were appointed by royal government and officials were appointed by royal patent. After 1541 authority emanated from the king of Ireland who (unless actually present, as in 1689–90) was represented by the
lord lieutenant or the
lord deputy. During the latter's absence government was controlled by
lords justices. The chief governor was advised by a
privy council appointed by the king and a grand council composed of the nobility, although this did not meet after 1600. The wider representative institution, parliament, was summoned and prorogued by the king although the terms of its business were severely restricted by
Poynings's Law. The infrequency of parliamentary sessions meant that a good deal of Irish business was carried out by proclamation and judicial decision. The enforcement of legislation was carried out by courts, of which two types existed. Prerogative courts, such as
Castle Chamber, were abolished after 1660 leaving the four common law courts of chancery, Common Pleas, exchequer, and King's Bench. Much administrative work was also carried out by these courts. The equity jurisdiction of chancery, for example, was subsidiary to its main function as the secretariat for the Irish administration keeping the
patent and close rolls. Similarly exchequer jurisdiction, from 1625, arose from disputes generated by its main role as revenue gatherer and administrator. In addition to the courts the chief governor's household acted as a civil service. The most important officer was the secretary, later the
chief secretary, who controlled most of the business. A number of other administrative matters were assigned to the church courts, including slander and matrimonial cases as well as the administration of probate. Only once in the early modern period was this structure amended. From 1651–4, following the defeat of royalist and Catholic forces in the
Confederate War, Ireland was governed by parliamentary commissioners and the courts were abolished. From 1653–9 Ireland was represented in the Westminster parliament.
Notwithstanding a gradual but inexorable increase in the scope and personnel of government, the Irish administration in the late 18th century remained on a small scale, with a total workforce (excluding ordnance and crewmen on revenue vessels) of only 2,000. Many official positions were little more than sinecures, any essential duties being performed by deputies. Following
Townshend's defeat of the
undertakers the lord lieutenant, now permanently resident, acquired greater importance. The role of the chief secretary also grew significantly, and the chief secretary's office, subdivided into first two then three sections (civil, military, and yeomanry), became the centre from which the Irish administration was controlled. New public bodies, reflecting the gradual expansion of state functions, included the
Linen Board, the commissioners of inland navigation (1752), and the Wide Streets Commission. Demands by the
Whig opposition for more effective parliamentary scrutiny of public administration and spending led to the creation in 1793 of an Irish Treasury Board. But all such attempts to achieve reform and accountability were overtaken by the Act of
Union.
Although the Union deprived Ireland of the status of a separate kingdom, it did not alter the basic machinery of government. Responsibility for the administration of Ireland remained in the hands of the lord lieutenant, aided by the Irish privy council, the chief secretary, and a body of officials. Day‐to‐day administration was organized from the chief secretary's office and supervised by the under‐secretary. However, the parliamentary union, coinciding as it did with a period of administrative reform in Britain, provided an opportunity for a general overhaul of administrative practice and standards. Sinecures were progressively reduced, and the administration became increasingly professional in character and performance. Qualifying tests were introduced for offices such as that of county surveyor (1833), and from 1871 recruitment to the civil service was by competitive exam.
By the mid‐19th century the tendency towards closer integration with Britain had given way to strategies and structures designed to meet Ireland's particular needs. The result was a highly centralized, interventionist system of government quite unlike that in Britain. By utilizing appointed bodies (
‘Castle boards’), ministers were able to bypass existing structures of local government. While this helped to broaden the base of local administration, it also lessened democratic accountability. Having been excluded by law from any government post prior to 1793 (see
penal laws), Catholics were recruited in growing numbers from the 1830s, although Protestants continued to predominate, particularly in senior positions.
Public administration in independent Ireland has reflected a combination of British influence and Irish innovation. The
constitutions of 1922 and 1937 in practice followed British example in terms of cabinet government, the role of the legislature, and the position of the head of state. The organization and apolitical ethos of the civil service, similarly, reflected Whitehall values.
The Irish system of government has nevertheless developed its own characteristics. Highly centralized and somewhat authoritarian structures are balanced by a written constitution which can be amended only by referendum, and by the electoral process. Despite
proportional representation, and the prevalence of minority or
interparty governments, however, the cabinet is even more powerful, and the legislature is conspicuously weaker, than in Britain.
The wider public sector has also developed distinctive traits. As the state's role expanded in areas such as
health services,
social welfare, economic planning, and industrial development, many regulatory, promotional, developmental, and other functions were hived off from the civil service to functional state agencies beyond direct ministerial and parliamentary control. Public or
state enterprise has also played an important part in the modernization of the Irish economy. In the early 1990s total public sector employment of all kinds, including health, education, defence and security, stood at about one‐fifth of total employment.
Bibliography
McDowell, R. B. , The Irish Administration (1964)
Nicholls, K. , Gaelic and Gaelicised Ireland in the Middle Ages (1972)
Richardson, H. G., and and Sayles, G. O. , The Administration of Ireland 1172–1377 (1963)
Simms, K. , From Kings to Warlords (1987)
Katharine Simms,/ Robin Frame,/ Raymond Gillespie,/ Virginia Crossman,/ and Eunan O'Halpin
