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The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.[1] The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron. The Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland continues to exercise jurisdiction over the Peerage of Ireland, including those peers whose titles derive from places located in what is now the Republic of Ireland.[2] However Article 40.2 of the Irish Constitution forbids the state conferring titles of nobility and a citizen may not accept titles of nobility or honour except with the prior approval of the Government.[3]
Contents
History[edit]
A handful of titles in the peerage of Ireland date from the Middle Ages. Before 1801, Irish peers were those who had the right to sit in the Irish House of Lords, but after the Union in 1801, they elected just twenty-eight representative peers to the House of Lords at Westminster.
Both before and after the Union, Irish peerages were often used as a way of creating peerages which did not grant a seat in the English House of Lords and so allowed the grantee (such as Clive of India) to sit in the House of Commons in London. As a consequence, many Irish peers had little or no connection to Ireland, and indeed the names of some Irish peerages refer to places in Great Britain (for example, the Earldom of Mexborough refers to a place in England and the Ranfurly refers to a village in Scotland). Irish peerages continued to be created for almost a century after the Union, although the treaty of Union placed restrictions on their numbers: three needed to become extinct before a new peerage could be granted, until there were only 100 Irish peers – a condition still not achieved. There was a spate of creations of Irish peerages from 1797 onwards, mostly peerages of higher ranks for existing Irish peers, as part of the negotiation of the Act of Union; this ended in the first week of January 1801, but the restrictions of the Act were not applied to the last few peers. Irish peerages were created in the early nineteenth century at least as often as the Act permitted, but the pace then slowed.
The last two individuals to be granted Irish peerages were the promotion of the Marquess of Abercorn (a peerage of Great Britain) to be Duke of Abercorn in the Irish Peerage when he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1868, and the granting of the Curzon of Kedleston barony to George Curzon when he became Viceroy of India in 1898.
Peers of Ireland have precedence below peers of England, Scotland, and Great Britain of the same rank, and above peers of the United Kingdom of the same rank; but Irish peers created after 1801 yield to United Kingdom peers of earlier creation. Accordingly, the Duke of Abercorn (the junior Duke in the Peerage of Ireland) ranks between the Duke of Sutherland and the Duke of Westminster (both dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom).
When one of the Irish representative peers died, the Irish Peerage met to elect his replacement; but the officers required to arrange this were abolished as part of the creation of the Irish Free State. The existing representative peers kept their seats in the House of Lords, but they have not been replaced. Since the death of Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey in 1961, none remains. The right of the Irish Peerage to elect Representatives was abolished by statute in 1971.
Extant Irish peerages[edit]
In the following table of the Peerage of Ireland as it currently stands,[4] each peer's highest titles in each of the other Peerages (if any) are also listed. Irish peers possessed of titles in any of the other Peerages (except Scotland, which only got the right to an automatic seat in 1963, with the Peerage Act 1963) had automatic seats in the House of Lords until 1999.
Dukes[edit]
Title | Creation | Other titles |
---|---|---|
The Duke of Ormond | 1661 | |
The Duke of Leinster | 1766 | Viscount Leinster in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Kildare in the Peerage of the United Kingdom |
The Duke of Abercorn | 1868 | Earl of Abercorn in the Peerage of Scotland Marquess of Abercorn in the Peerage of Great Britain |
Marquesses[edit]
Title | Creation | Other titles |
---|---|---|
The Marquess of Ormond | 1816 | |
The Marquess of Waterford | 1789 | Baron Tyrone in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Marquess of Downshire | 1789 | Earl of Hillsborough in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Marquess of Donegall | 1791 | Lord Fisherwick in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Templemore in the Peerage of the UK |
The Marquess of Headfort | 1800 | Lord Kenlis in the Peerage of the UK |
The Marquess of Sligo | 1800 | Lord Monteagle in the Peerage of the UK |
The Marquess of Ely | 1801 | Lord Loftus in the Peerage of the UK |
The Marquess Conyngham | 1816 | Lord Minster in the Peerage of the UK |
The Marquess of Londonderry | 1816 | Earl Vane in the Peerage of the UK |
Earls[edit]
Title | Creation | Other titles; Notes |
---|---|---|
The Earl Annesley | 1789 | |
The Earl of Antrim | 1785 | |
The Earl of Arran | 1762 | Lord Sudley in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Bessborough | 1739 | Lord Ponsonby in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Duncannon in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Carrick | 1748 | Lord Butler in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Cavan | 1647 | |
The Earl of Clanwilliam | 1776 | Lord Clanwilliam in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Cork and Orrery | 1620; 1660 | Lord Boyle of Marston in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Earl of Courtown | 1762 | Lord Saltersford in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Earl of Darnley | 1725 | Lord Clifton in the Peerage of England |
The Earl of Desmond | 1628 | Earl of Denbigh in the Peerage of England |
The Earl of Drogheda | 1661 | Lord Moore in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Enniskillen | 1789 | Lord Grinstead in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl Erne | 1789 | Lord Fermanagh in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Granard | 1684 | Lord Granard in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Kerry and Shelburne | 1722; 1753 | Marquess of Lansdowne in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Earl of Kingston | 1768 | |
The Earl of Lisburne | 1776 | |
The Earl of Longford | 1785 | Lord Silchester and Pakenham in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Lucan | 1795 | Lord Bingham in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Meath | 1627 | Lord Chaworth in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Mexborough | 1766 | |
The Earl of Mornington | 1760 | Duke of Wellington in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Portarlington | 1785 | |
The Earl of Roden | 1771 | |
The Earl of Shannon | 1756 | Lord Carleton in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Earl of Mayo | 1785 | |
The Earl Belmore | 1797 | |
The Earl Castle Stewart | 1800 | |
The Earl of Donoughmore | 1800 | Viscount Hutchinson in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Caledon | 1800 | |
The Earl of Limerick | 1803 | Lord Foxford in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Clancarty | 1803 | Viscount Clancarty in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Gosford | 1806 | Lord Worlingham and Acheson in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Rosse | 1806 | |
The Earl of Normanton | 1806 | Lord Mendip in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Somerton in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Kilmorey | 1822 | |
The Earl of Listowel | 1822 | Lord Hare in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Norbury | 1827 | |
The Earl of Ranfurly | 1831 | Lord Ranfurly in the Peerage of the UK |
The Earl of Waterford | 1446 | Earl of Shrewsbury in the Peerage of England |
The Earl of Westmeath | 1621 | |
The Earl Winterton | 1766 |
Viscounts[edit]
Title | Creation | Other titles |
---|---|---|
The Viscount Gormanston | 1478 | Lord Gormanston in the Peerage of the UK |
The Viscount Mountgarret | 1550 | Lord Mountgarret in the Peerage of the UK |
The Viscount Grandison | 1620 | Earl of Jersey in the Peerage of England |
The Viscount Valentia | 1622 | |
The Viscount Dillon | 1622 | |
The Viscount Lumley | 1628 | Earl of Scarbrough in the Peerage of England |
The Viscount Massereene and Ferrard | 1660; 1797 | Lord Oriel in the Peerage of the UK |
The Viscount Cholmondeley | 1661 | Earl of Cholmondeley in the Peerage of England Lord Newburgh in the Peerage of Great Britain Marquess of Cholmondeley in the Peerage of the UK |
The Viscount Charlemont | 1665 | |
The Viscount Downe | 1681 | Lord Dawnay in the Peerage of the UK |
The Viscount Molesworth | 1716 | |
The Viscount Chetwynd | 1717 | |
The Viscount Midleton | 1717 | Lord Brodrick in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Viscount Boyne | 1717 | Lord Brancepeth in the Peerage of the UK |
The Viscount Grimston | 1719 | Lord Forrester in the Peerage of Scotland Lord Verulam in the Peerage of Great Britain Earl of Verulam in the Peerage of the UK |
The Viscount Gage | 1720 | Lord Gage in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Viscount Galway | 1727 | |
The Viscount Powerscourt | 1743 | Lord Powerscourt in the Peerage of the UK |
The Viscount Ashbrook | 1751 | |
The Viscount Southwell | 1776 | |
The Viscount de Vesci | 1776 | |
The Viscount Lifford | 1781 | |
The Viscount Bangor | 1781 | |
The Viscount Doneraile | 1785 | |
The Viscount Harberton | 1791 | |
The Viscount Hawarden | 1793 | |
The Viscount Monck | 1801 | Lord Monck in the Peerage of the UK |
The Viscount Gort | 1816 |
Barons[edit]
In Ireland, barony may also refer to an obsolete political subdivision of a county. There is no connection between such a barony and the noble title of baron.
Title | Creation | Other titles |
---|---|---|
The Lord Kingsale | 1397 | |
The Lord Dunsany | 1439 | |
The Lord Trimlestown | 1461 | |
The Lord Dunboyne | 1541 | |
The Lord Louth | 1541 | |
The Lord Inchiquin | 1543 | |
The Lord Digby | 1620 | Lord Digby in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Lord Conway and Killultagh | 1712 | Lord Conway in the Peerage of England Marquess of Hertford in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Lord Newborough | 1715 | Marquess of Cholmondeley in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Carbery | 1715 | |
The Lord Aylmer | 1718 | |
The Lord Farnham | 1756 | |
The Lord Lisle | 1758 | |
The Lord Clive | 1762 | Lord Clive in the Peerage of Great Britain Earl of Powis in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Westcote | 1776 | Viscount Cobham in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Lord Macdonald | 1776 | |
The Lord Kensington | 1776 | Lord Kensington in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Newborough | 1776 | |
The Lord Massy | 1776 | |
The Lord Muskerry | 1781 | |
The Lord Hood | 1782 | Viscount Hood in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Lord Sheffield | 1783 | Lord Stanley of Alderley and Eddisbury in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Kilmaine | 1789 | |
The Lord Auckland | 1789 | Lord Auckland in the Peerage of Great Britain |
The Lord Waterpark | 1792 | |
The Lord Bridport | 1794 | Viscount Bridport in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Graves | 1794 | |
The Lord Huntingfield | 1796 | |
The Lord Carrington | 1796 | Lord Carrington in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Carington of Upton in the Peerage of the UK for life |
The Lord Rossmore | 1796 | Lord Rossmore in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Hotham | 1797 | |
The Lord Crofton | 1797 | |
The Lord ffrench | 1798 | |
The Lord Henley | 1799 | Lord Northington in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Langford | 1800 | |
The Lord Henniker | 1800 | Lord Hartismere in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Dufferin and Claneboye | 1800 | |
The Lord Ventry | 1800 | |
The Lord Dunalley | 1800 | |
The Lord Clanmorris | 1800 | |
The Lord Ashtown | 1800 | |
The Lord Rendlesham | 1806 | |
The Lord Castlemaine | 1812 | |
The Lord Decies | 1812 | |
The Lord Garvagh | 1818 | |
The Lord Talbot of Malahide | 1831 | |
The Lord Carew | 1834 | Lord Carew in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Oranmore and Browne | 1836 | Lord Mereworth in the Peerage of the UK |
The Lord Bellew | 1848 | |
The Lord Fermoy | 1865 | |
The Lord Rathdonnell | 1868 |
See also[edit]
- List of Irish representative peers
- Irish nobility, which distinguishes three groups of Irish nobility, the other two being:
References[edit]
- ^ With the establishment of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the separate title "King of Ireland" ceased.
- ^ The College of Arms – The Roll of the Peerage
- ^ "40.2" (PDF), Constitution of Ireland (Dublin: Stationery Office)
- ^ Cracroft's Peerage – The Peerage of Ireland
External links[edit]
- Courthope, William (editor) (1838). Debrett's Complete Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: 22nd edition. London.
- Lodge, John; Archdall, Mervyn (1789). The Peerage of Ireland: Volume I. Dublin: James Moore.
- Lodge, John; Archdall, Mervyn (1789). The Peerage of Ireland: Volume II. Dublin: James Moore.
- Kimber, Edward (1768). The Peerage of Ireland: Volume II. London: J Alman.
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