1.
Dublin Castle
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Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the seat of the United Kingdom governments administration in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland. The Castle served as the seat of English, then later British government of Ireland under the Lordship of Ireland, the Kingdom of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, the complex was handed over to the newly formed Provisional Government led by Michael Collins. The castle today is a major tourist attraction and conferencing destination, the building is also used for State dinners and most significantly, the inauguration of the presidents of Ireland. Dublin Castle fulfilled a number of roles through its history, the second in command in the Dublin Castle administration, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, also had his offices there. Over the years parliament and law courts met at the castle before moving to new purpose-built venues and it also served as a military garrison. Castle Catholic was a term for Catholics who were considered to be overly friendly with or supportive of the British administration. Upon formation of the Free State in 1922, the castle assumed for a decade the role of the Four Courts on the Liffey quays which had been damaged during the Civil War. It was decided in 1938 that the inauguration of the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde would take place in the castle, two dedicated conference facilities, The Hibernia Conference Centre and The Printworks, were install for the European Presidencies of 1990 and 2013. Sited to the south-east of Norman Dublin, the formed one corner of the outer perimeter of the city. The city wall directly abutted the castles northeast Powder Tower, extending north, in 1620 the English-born judge Luke Gernon was greatly impressed by the wall, a huge and mighty wall, foursquare, and of incredible thickness. The Poddle was diverted into the city through archways where the walls adjoined the castle, one of these archways and part of the wall survive buried underneath the 18th-century buildings, and are open to public inspection. The building survived until 1673, when it was damaged by fire, the Court of Castle Chamber, the Irish counterpart to the English Star Chamber, sat in Dublin Castle in a room which was specially built for it about 1570. The Castle sustained severe damage in 1684. Extensive rebuilding transformed it from medieval fortress to Georgian palace, United Irishmen General Joseph Holt, a participant in the 1798 Rising, was incarcerated in the Bermingham Tower before being transported to New South Wales in 1799. In 1884 officers at the Castle were at the centre of a homosexual scandal incited by the Irish Nationalist politician William OBrien through his newspaper United Ireland. In 1907 the Irish Crown Jewels were stolen from the Castle, suspicion fell upon the Officer of Arms, Sir Arthur Vicars, but rumours of his homosexuality and links to socially important gay men in London, may have compromised the investigation
2.
Ireland
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Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth. Politically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland, which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, in 2011, the population of Ireland was about 6.4 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. Just under 4.6 million live in the Republic of Ireland, the islands geography comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild, thick woodlands covered the island until the Middle Ages. As of 2013, the amount of land that is wooded in Ireland is about 11% of the total, there are twenty-six extant mammal species native to Ireland. The Irish climate is moderate and classified as oceanic. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, however, summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant, the earliest evidence of human presence in Ireland is dated at 10,500 BC. Gaelic Ireland had emerged by the 1st century CE, the island was Christianised from the 5th century onward. Following the Norman invasion in the 12th century, England claimed sovereignty over Ireland, however, English rule did not extend over the whole island until the 16th–17th century Tudor conquest, which led to colonisation by settlers from Britain. In the 1690s, a system of Protestant English rule was designed to materially disadvantage the Catholic majority and Protestant dissenters, with the Acts of Union in 1801, Ireland became a part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland saw much civil unrest from the late 1960s until the 1990s and this subsided following a political agreement in 1998. In 1973 the Republic of Ireland joined the European Economic Community while the United Kingdom, Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the fields of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, an indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music. The culture of the island shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing. The name Ireland derives from Old Irish Eriu and this in turn derives from Proto-Celtic *Iveriu, which is also the source of Latin Hibernia. Iveriu derives from a root meaning fat, prosperous, during the last glacial period, and up until about 9000 years ago, most of Ireland was covered with ice, most of the time
3.
Kingdom of England
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In the early 11th century the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, united by Æthelstan, became part of the North Sea Empire of Cnut the Great, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway. The completion of the conquest of Wales by Edward I in 1284 put Wales under the control of the English crown, from the accession of James I in 1603, the Stuart dynasty ruled England in personal union with Scotland and Ireland. Under the Stuarts, the kingdom plunged into war, which culminated in the execution of Charles I in 1649. The monarchy returned in 1660, but the Civil War had established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without the consent of Parliament and this concept became legally established as part of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. From this time the kingdom of England, as well as its state the United Kingdom. On 1 May 1707, under the terms of the Acts of Union 1707, the Anglo-Saxons referred to themselves as the Engle or the Angelcynn, originally names of the Angles. They called their land Engla land, meaning land of the English, by Æthelweard Latinized Anglia, from an original Anglia vetus, the name Engla land became England by haplology during the Middle English period. The Latin name was Anglia or Anglorum terra, the Old French, by the 14th century, England was also used in reference to the entire island of Great Britain. The standard title for all monarchs from Æthelstan until the time of King John was Rex Anglorum, Canute the Great, a Dane, was the first king to call himself King of England. In the Norman period Rex Anglorum remained standard, with use of Rex Anglie. The Empress Matilda styled herself Domina Anglorum, from the time of King John onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of Rex or Regina Anglie. In 1604 James VI and I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, the English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707. The kingdom of England emerged from the unification of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdoms known as the Heptarchy, East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Sussex. The Viking invasions of the 9th century upset the balance of power between the English kingdoms, and native Anglo-Saxon life in general, the English lands were unified in the 10th century in a reconquest completed by King Æthelstan in 927 CE. During the Heptarchy, the most powerful king among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms might become acknowledged as Bretwalda, the decline of Mercia allowed Wessex to become more powerful. It absorbed the kingdoms of Kent and Sussex in 825, the kings of Wessex became increasingly dominant over the other kingdoms of England during the 9th century. In 827, Northumbria submitted to Egbert of Wessex at Dore, in 886, Alfred the Great retook London, which he apparently regarded as a turning point in his reign. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that all of the English people not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred, asser added that Alfred, king of the Anglo-Saxons, restored the city of London splendidly
4.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established as a sovereign state on 1 January 1801 by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The growing desire for an Irish Republic led to the Irish War of Independence, Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, and the state was consequently renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Britain financed the European coalition that defeated France in 1815 in the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire thereby became the foremost world power for the next century. The Crimean War with Russia and the Boer wars were relatively small operations in a largely peaceful century, rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the states formation continued up until the mid-19th century. A devastating famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the century, led to demographic collapse in much of Ireland. It was an era of economic modernization and growth of industry, trade and finance. Outward migration was heavy to the colonies and to the United States. Britain also built up a large British Empire in Africa and Asia, India, by far the most important possession, saw a short-lived revolt in 1857. In foreign policy Britain favoured free trade, which enabled its financiers and merchants to operate successfully in many otherwise independent countries, as in South America. Britain formed no permanent military alliances until the early 20th century, when it began to cooperate with Japan, France and Russia, and moved closer to the United States. A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the British governments fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801, however, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his governments attempts to introduce it. When the Treaty of Amiens ended the war, Britain agreed to return most of the territories it had seized, in May 1803, war was declared again. In 1806, Napoleon issued the series of Berlin Decrees, which brought into effect the Continental System and this policy aimed to eliminate the threat from the British by closing French-controlled territory to foreign trade. Frances population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of the British Isles, Napoleon expected that cutting Britain off from the European mainland would end its economic hegemony. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent, after Napoleons surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned. The Allies united and the armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once, simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes, arming hostile Indians and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. The war was little noticed in Britain, which could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814, American frigates inflicted a series of defeats on the Royal Navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe
5.
Four Courts
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The Four Courts is Irelands main courts building, located on Inns Quay in Dublin. The Four Courts are the location of the Supreme Court, the High Court, until 2010 the building also housed the Central Criminal Court. Work based on the design of Thomas Cooley for the Public Records Office of Ireland, after his death in 1784 renowned architect James Gandon was appointed to finish the building, which we recognise today as the Four Courts. It was built between 1786 and 1796, while the finishing touches to the arcades and wings were completed in 1802, the lands were previously used by the Kings Inns. The building originally housed the four courts of Chancery, Kings Bench, Exchequer and Common Pleas, a major revision in the court system in the late nineteenth century saw these courts merged into a new High Court of Ireland, but the building has retained its historic name. In 1961 the words of justice were dropped from the names of both courts when they were belatedly re-established consequent upon the enactment of the 1937 Constitution, the Four Courts and surrounding areas were held by Commandant Ned Dalys 1st Battalion during the Easter Rising in 1916. Some of the most intense fighting of Easter Week took place in the Church Street/North King Street/North Brunswick Street area, at the end of the week the Four Courts building itself became the headquarters of the 1st Battalion. On 14 April 1922 the courts complex was occupied by forces opposed to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, in the process of the bombardment the historic building was destroyed. The west wing of the building was obliterated in a huge explosion, nearly a thousand years of archives were destroyed by this. They suggest that the explosion was caused by the detonation of their ammunition store during the fighting. For a decade, the old system, then the new Free State courts system, were based in the old viceregal apartments in Dublin Castle. In 1932, a rebuilt and remodelled Four Courts was opened, two side wings were rebuilt further from the river to undo the problem caused by excessively narrow footpaths outside the building. However, that change, and the removal of chimney-stacks, has removed some of the architectural unity, in the early 1990s, the then Chief Justice suggested building a new purpose-built building to house the Supreme Court, leaving the other courts in situ. For the present, however, the Supreme Court remains in the Four Courts, prior to 2010 both civil and serious trials were heard in the Four Courts which was also the location for the Court of Criminal Appeal. With the opening of a new criminal courts complex in January 2010 – the Criminal Courts of Justice beside the Phoenix Park – all criminal trials were transferred there, the Four Courts remaining in use for civil matters. The Court of Criminal Appeal also moved to the new building, Courts of the Republic of Ireland Law of the Republic of Ireland Four Courts web tour Courts Service of Ireland The Bar Council The National Archives of Ireland
6.
Parliament House, Dublin
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Parliament House in Dublin, Ireland, was home to the Parliament of Ireland, and now houses the Bank of Ireland. It is located at College Green, construction started in 1729 and it was the worlds first purpose-built two-chamber parliament house. The current parliament building is Leinster House, most famously, the legal documentation facilitating the Plantation of Ulster had been signed in the house on 16 November 1612. Chichester House was in a state, allegedly haunted and unfit for parliamentary use. In 1727 parliament voted to spend £6,000 on the building of a new building on the site and it was to be the first purpose-built two-chamber parliament building in the world. While building was begun, Parliament moved into the Blue Coat Hospital on Dublins Northside, the foundation stone for the new building was laid on 3 February 1729 by Thomas Wyndham, 1st Baron Wyndham, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Pearces design for the new Parliament House was revolutionary, the building was effectively semi-circular in shape, occupying nearly 6,000 m² of ground. Unlike Chichester House, which was set far back from Hoggen Green, the principal entrance consisted of a colonnade of Ionic columns extending around three sides of the entrance quadrangle, forming a letter E. Three statues, representing Hibernia, Fidelity and Commerce stood above the portico, over the main entrance, the royal coat of arms were cut in stone. The building itself underwent extensions by the architect James Gandon, as Pearce had died young, Gandon was responsible for three of Dublins finest buildings, the Custom House, the Four Courts and the Kings Inns. Between 1785 and 1789 he added a new entrance at the east of the building, facing onto Westmoreland Street. Over this, three statues by Edward Smyth were placed, representing Fortitude, Justice and Liberty, a curved wall joined the Pearce entrance to Gandons extension. This did not mark the exterior of the building but masked the uneven joins of some of the extension, as shown in the view at the bottom of this page. The wall, built of granite with inset alcoves, although an instantly recognisable aspect of the building today, bears little resemblance to the building as it was in its parliamentary days. When the Bank of Ireland took over the building, it created an architectural unity by replacing this set of Ionic columns by a curved wall similar to that built on the east side by Gandon. Ionic columns were added to both curved walls, giving the extensions an architectural and visual unity that had been lacking and producing the buildings exterior as it is today. The interior of the house contained one unusual and highly symbolic feature, however, in the new Irish Houses of Parliament the House of Commons was given pride of place, with its octagonal parliamentary chamber located in the centre of the building. In contrast, the smaller House of Lords was given a position nearby
7.
Act of Union 1800
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The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with effect from 1 January 1801. Both Acts, though amended, still remain in force in the United Kingdom. Since the 12th century, the King of England had been technical overlord of the Lordship of Ireland, both the Kingdoms of Ireland and England later came into personal union with that of Scotland upon the Union of the Crowns in 1603. In 1707, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland were united into a single kingdom, each Act had to be passed in both the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland. The Parliament of Ireland had recently gained a measure of legislative independence under the Constitution of 1782. Many members of the Irish Parliament jealously guarded this autonomy and a motion for union was rejected in 1799. Only Anglicans were permitted to become members of the Parliament of Ireland, though the majority of the Irish population were Roman Catholic. In 1793 Roman Catholics regained the right to vote if they owned or rented property worth £2 p. a. The Catholic hierarchy was strongly in favour of union, hoping for rapid emancipation, also the Irish and British parliaments, when creating a regency during King George IIIs madness, gave the Prince Regent different powers. These considerations led Great Britain to decide to attempt merger of the two kingdoms and their parliaments, whereas the first attempt had been defeated in the Irish House of Commons by 109 votes against to 104 for, the second vote in 1800 produced a result of 158 to 115. The Acts of Union were two complementary Acts, namely, The Union with Ireland Act 1800, an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and The Act of Union 1800, an Act of the Parliament of Ireland. They were passed on 2 July 1800 and 1 August 1800 respectively and they ratified eight articles which had been previously agreed by the British and Irish Parliaments, Articles I–IV dealt with the political aspects of the Union. The other 84 Irish parliamentary boroughs were disfranchised, all were pocket boroughs, article VI created a customs union, with the exception that customs duties on certain British and Irish goods passing between the two countries would remain for 10 years. Article VII stated that Ireland would have to contribute two-seventeenths towards the expenditure of the United Kingdom, the figure was a ratio of Irish to British foreign trade. Article VIII formalised the legal and judicial aspects of the Union, part of the attraction of the Union for many Irish Catholics was the promise of Catholic Emancipation, allowing Roman Catholic MPs, who had not been allowed in the Irish Parliament. This was however blocked by King George III who argued that emancipating Roman Catholics would breach his Coronation Oath, in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the members of the House of Commons were not elected afresh. The flag, created as a consequence of the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1800, called the Union Flag, it combined the flags of St Georges Cross and the St Andrews Saltire of Scotland with the St Patricks Saltire to represent Ireland. The Irish Constitutional Tradition, Responsible Government and Modern Ireland 1782–1992, gill & Macmillan, Dublin, Ireland,2003
8.
Palace of Westminster
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The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, the Palace lies on the bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster. The palace is owned by the monarch in right of the Crown and for ceremonial purposes, the building is managed by committees appointed by both houses, which report to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker. The first royal palace was built on the site in the 11th century, part of the New Palaces area of 3.24 hectares was reclaimed from the Thames, which is the setting of its nearly 300-metre long façade, called the River Front. Barry was assisted by Augustus Pugin, an authority on Gothic architecture and style. The Palace is one of the centres of political life in the United Kingdom, Westminster has become a metonym for the UK Parliament, the Palace of Westminster has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The Palace of Westminster site was important during the Middle Ages. Known in medieval times as Thorney Island, the site may have been first-used for a residence by Canute the Great during his reign from 1016 to 1035. St Edward the Confessor, the penultimate Anglo-Saxon monarch of England, Thorney Island and the surrounding area soon became known as Westminster. Neither the buildings used by the Anglo-Saxons nor those used by William I survive, the oldest existing part of the Palace dates from the reign of William Is successor, King William II. The Palace of Westminster was the principal residence in the late Medieval period. The predecessor of Parliament, the Curia Regis, met in Westminster Hall, simon de Montforts parliament, the first to include representatives of the major towns, met at the Palace in 1265. The Model Parliament, the first official Parliament of England, met there in 1295, in 1512, during the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII, fire destroyed the royal residential area of the palace. In 1534, Henry VIII acquired York Place from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, renaming it the Palace of Whitehall, Henry used it as his principal residence. Although Westminster officially remained a royal palace, it was used by the two Houses of Parliament and by the various law courts. Because it was originally a residence, the Palace included no purpose-built chambers for the two Houses. Important state ceremonies were held in the Painted Chamber which had originally built in the 13th century as the main bedchamber for King Henry III. The House of Commons, which did not have a chamber of its own, the Commons acquired a permanent home at the Palace in St Stephens Chapel, the former chapel of the royal palace, during the reign of Edward VI
9.
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
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Lord Lieutenant was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 till the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the office, under its various names, was often more generally known as the viceroy, from the French vice roi or deputy king, and his wife was known as the vicereine. The government of Ireland in practice was usually in the hands of the Lord Deputy up to the 17th century, although in the Middle Ages some Lords Deputy were Irish noblemen, only men from Great Britain, usually peers, were appointed to the office of Lord Lieutenant. The Kings representative possessed a number of overlapping roles and he was the representative of the King, the head of the executive in Ireland, a member of the English or British Cabinet, the font of mercy, justice and patronage, commander-in-chief in Ireland. His Government exercised effective control of parliament through the exercise of the powers of patronage, namely the awarding of peerages, baronetcies. Critics accused successive viceroys of using their power as a corrupt means of controlling parliament. On one day in July 1777, Lord Buckinghamshire as Lord Lieutenant promoted 5 viscounts to earls,7 barons to viscounts, under-Secretary for Ireland, The head of the civil service in Ireland. Lord Justices, Three office-holders who acted in the Lord Lieutenants stead during his absence, the Lord Justices were before 1800 the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh as Primate of All Ireland. Lords Lieutenant were appointed for no set term but served for His/Her Majestys pleasure, in reality that meant for as long as wished by the British Government. Where a ministry fell, the Lord Lieutenant was usually replaced by a supporter of the new ministry, until the 16th century, Irish or Anglo-Irish noblemen such as the 8th Earl of Kildare and the 9th Earl of Kildare traditionally held the post of Justiciar or Lord Deputy. Following the plantations, however, noblemen from Great Britain were given the post, the last Irish Catholic to hold the position was Lord Tyrconnell from 1685–91, during the brief Catholic Ascendancy in the reign of James II that was ended by the Williamite war in Ireland. Until 1767 none of the latter lived full-time in Ireland, instead they resided in Ireland during meetings of the Irish Parliament. However the British cabinet decided in 1765 that full-time residency should be required to enable the Lord Lieutenant to keep a eye on public affairs in Ireland. The office was restricted to members of the Anglican faith, the first Catholic appointed to the post since the reign of the Catholic King James II was in fact the last viceroy, Lord FitzAlan of Derwent, in April 1921. His appointment was possible because the Government of Ireland Act 1920 ended the prohibition on Catholics being appointed to the position, FitzAlan was also the only Lord Lieutenant of Ireland ever to hold office when the former Ireland was partitioned into Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland. The post ebbed and flowed in importance, being used on occasion as a form of exile for prominent British politicians who had fallen foul of the Court of St. Jamess or Westminster, on other occasions it was a stepping stone to a future career. Two Lords Lieutenant, Lord Hartington and the Duke of Portland, instead it was the Chief Secretary for Ireland who became central, with he, not the Lord Lieutenant, sitting on occasion in the British cabinet. The official residence of the Lord Lieutenant was the Viceregal Apartments in Dublin Castle, the Geraldine Lords Deputy, the 8th Earl of Kildare and the 9th Earl of Kildare, being native Irish, both lived in, among other locations, their castle in Maynooth, County Kildare
10.
Viceroy
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A viceroy /ˈvaɪs. rɔɪ/ is a regal official who runs a country, colony, city, province, or sub-national state, in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning in the place of, a viceroys territory may be called a viceroyalty, though this term is not always applied. The adjectival form is viceregal, less often viceroyal, the term vicereine is sometimes used to indicate a female viceroy suo jure, although viceroy can serve as a gender-neutral term. Vicereine is more used to indicate a viceroys wife. The title was used by the Crown of Aragon, where beginning in the 14th century, it referred to the Spanish governors of Sardinia. In Europe, until the 18th century, the Habsburg crown appointed viceroys of Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, Navarre, Portugal, Sardinia, Sicily, with the ascension of the House of Bourbon to the Spanish throne, the historic Aragonese viceroyalties were replaced by new captaincies general. At the end of War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish monarchy was shorn of its Italian possessions and these Italian territories, however, continued to have viceroys under their new rulers for some time, Sardinia would have a viceroy until 1848. These large administrative territories became known as Viceroyalties, New viceroyalties were created for New Granada in 1717 and the Río de la Plata in 1776. These units gathered the local provinces which could be governed by either a crown official, audiencias primarily functioned as superior judicial tribunals, but unlike their European counterparts, the New World audiencias were granted by law both administrative and legislative powers. The Bourbon Reforms introduced the new office of the intendant, which was appointed directly by the crown and had broad fiscal and administrative powers in political and military issues. The government started six years after the discovery of sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, in 1505, however the post was centered by governor Afonso de Albuquerque, who became plenipotentiary, and remained so. The duration in office was three years, possibly longer, given the power represented, of the thirty-four governors of India in the 16th century. After the end of the Iberian Union in 1640, the governors of Brazil that were members of the Portuguese high nobility started to use the title of Viceroy. Brazil became a permanent Viceroyalty in 1763, when the capital of the State of Brazil was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro, the designation Viceroy, although it was most frequently used in ordinary parlance, had no statutory authority, and was never employed by Parliament. The Governor-General continued to be the representative of the Crown. The viceroys reported directly to the Secretary of State for India in London and were advised by the Council of India, alongside the Commander-in-Chief, India, the viceroy was the public face of the British presence in India, attending to many ceremonial functions as well as political affairs. During the offices history, the Governors-General of India were based in two cities, Calcutta during the 19th century and New Delhi during the 20th century, additionally, whilst Calcutta was the capital of British India, the viceroys spent the summer months at Simla. The two historic residences of the viceroys still stand, the Viceroys House in New Delhi and Government House in Calcutta and they are used today as the official residences of the President of India and the Governor of West Bengal, respectively
11.
Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be United into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800, legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage
12.
Chief Secretary for Ireland
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The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. The Chief Secretary was ex officio President of the Local Government Board for Ireland from its creation in 1872, British rule over much of Ireland came to an end as the result of the Irish War of Independence, which culminated in the establishment of the Irish Free State. In consequence the office of Chief Secretary was abolished, as well as that of Lord Lieutenant, the dominant position of the Lord Lieutenant at Dublin Castle had been central to the British administration of the Kingdom of Ireland for much of its history. The appointment of a Secretary was intended to both improve Irish administration, and to keep the Lord Lieutenant in line. The role of Secretary of State for Ireland and Chief Secretary of Ireland were originally distinct positions, while the Irish administration was not responsible to the parliament, it nevertheless needed to manage and influence it in order to ensure the passage of key legislative measures. In 1800 the Act of Union was passed by the Irish parliament, merging the kingdom into the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with effect from 1 January 1801. The Chief Secretaryship was of importance in the run-up to the eventual enactment, on the second attempt, of the Act of Union. The Chief Secretarys exercise of patronage and direct bribery were central to delivering a majority for the Union. Upon the Union the Irish parliament ceased to exist, however, the existing system of administration in Ireland continued broadly in place, with the offices of Lord Lieutenant and Chief Secretary retaining their respective roles
13.
Government of Ireland Act 1920
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The Government of Ireland Act 1920 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Acts long title was An Act to provide for the government of Ireland. Both areas of Ireland were to continue as a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and provision was made for their future reunification under common Home Rule institutions. Home Rule never took effect in Southern Ireland, due to the Irish War of Independence, which resulted instead in the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the establishment in 1922 of the Irish Free State. However, the set up under this Act for Northern Ireland continued to function until they were suspended by the British parliament in 1972 as a consequence of the Troubles. The remaining provisions of the Act still in force in Northern Ireland were repealed under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, various attempts had been made to give Ireland limited regional self-government, known as Home rule, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Third Home Rule Bill introduced in 1912 by the Irish Parliamentary Party could no longer be vetoed after the passing of the Parliament Act 1911 which removed the power of the Lords to veto bills and they could merely be delayed for two years. Because of the threat of civil war in Ireland, King George V called the Buckingham Palace Conference in July 1914 where Irish Nationalist and Unionist leaders failed to reach agreement. A few weeks after the British entry into the war, the Act received Royal Assent, however, the Suspensory Act 1914 meant that implementation would be suspended for the duration of what was expected to be only a short European war. A delay ensued because of the end of the First World War in November 1918, the Paris Peace Conference,1919. Long proposed the creation of two Irish home rule entities, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, each with unicameral parliaments, the Bills second reading debates in late March 1920 revealed that already a large number of Irish members of parliament present felt that the proposals were unworkable. After considerable delays in debating the financial aspects of the measure, a considerable number of the Irish Members present voted against the Bill, including Southern Unionists such as Maurice Dockrell, and Nationalists like Joe Devlin. During the Great War Irish politics moved decisively in a different direction, sinn Féin, standing for an independent sovereign Ireland, won 73 of the 105 parliamentary seats on the island in the 1918 general election. Its elected members established their own parliament, Dáil Éireann, which declared the independence as the Irish Republic. Dáil Éireann, after a number of meetings, was declared illegal in September 1919 by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, also for a variety of reasons all the Ulster Unionist MPs at Westminster voted against the Act. They preferred that all or most of Ulster would remain fully within the United Kingdom, thus, when the Act became law on 23 December 1920 it was already out of touch with realities in Ireland. The long-standing demand for home rule had been replaced among Nationalists by a demand for complete independence, the Republics army was waging the Irish War of Independence against British rule, which had reached a nadir in late 1920. Northern Ireland as defined by the Act, amounting to six of the nine counties of Ulster, was seen as the area within which Unionists could be expected to have a safe majority
14.
Countries of the United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom comprises four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Within the United Kingdom, a sovereign state, Northern Ireland, Scotland. England, comprising the majority of the population and area of the United Kingdom, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not themselves listed in the International Organization for Standardization list of countries. However the ISO list of the subdivisions of the UK, compiled by British Standards, Northern Ireland, in contrast, is described as a province in the same lists. Each has separate governing bodies for sports and compete separately in many international sporting competitions. Northern Ireland also forms joint All-Island sporting bodies with the Republic of Ireland for most sports, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are dependencies of the Crown and are not part of the UK. Similarly, the British overseas territories, remnants of the British Empire, are not part of the UK, southern Ireland left the United Kingdom under the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. * Figures for GVA do not include oil and gas revenues generated beyond the UKs territorial waters, various terms have been used to describe England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Wales was described as the country, principality, and dominion of Wales, outside Wales, England was not given a specific name or term. The Laws in Wales Acts have subsequently been repealed, the Acts of Union 1707 refer to both England and Scotland as a part of a united kingdom of Great Britain The Acts of Union 1800 use part in the same way to refer to England and Scotland. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which repealed the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the Interpretation Act 1978 provides statutory definitions of the terms England, Wales and the United Kingdom, but neither that Act nor any other current statute defines Scotland or Northern Ireland. Use of the first three terms in other legislation is interpreted following the definitions in the 1978 Act and this definition applies from 1 April 1974. United Kingdom means Great Britain and Northern Ireland and this definition applies from 12 April 1927. In 1996 these 8 new counties were redistributed into the current 22 unitary authorities, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are regions in their own right while England has been divided into nine regions. The official term rest of the UK is used in Scotland, for example in export statistics and this term is also used in the context of potential Scottish independence to mean the UK without Scotland. The alternative term Home Nations is sometimes used in sporting contexts, the second, or civic group, contained the items about feeling British, respecting laws and institutions, speaking English, and having British citizenship. Contrariwise, in Scotland and Wales there was a much stronger identification with each country than with Britain, studies and surveys have reported that the majority of the Scots and Welsh see themselves as both Scottish/Welsh and British though with some differences in emphasis. The propensity for nationalistic feeling varies greatly across the UK, and can rise and it reported that 37% of people identified as British, whilst 29% identified as Irish and 24% identified as Northern Irish
15.
Northern Ireland
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Northern Ireland is a constituent unit of the United Kingdom in the north-east of Ireland. It is variously described as a country, province, region, or part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland shares a border to the south and west with the Republic of Ireland. In 2011, its population was 1,810,863, constituting about 30% of the total population. Northern Ireland was created in 1921, when Ireland was partitioned between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland by an act of the British parliament, Northern Ireland has historically been the most industrialised region of Ireland. After declining as a result of the political and social turmoil of the Troubles, its economy has grown significantly since the late 1990s. Unemployment in Northern Ireland peaked at 17. 2% in 1986, dropping to 6. 1% for June–August 2014,58. 2% of those unemployed had been unemployed for over a year. Prominent artists and sports persons from Northern Ireland include Van Morrison, Rory McIlroy, Joey Dunlop, Wayne McCullough, some people from Northern Ireland prefer to identify as Irish while others prefer to identify as British. Cultural links between Northern Ireland, the rest of Ireland, and the rest of the UK are complex, in many sports, the island of Ireland fields a single team, a notable exception being association football. Northern Ireland competes separately at the Commonwealth Games, and people from Northern Ireland may compete for either Great Britain or Ireland at the Olympic Games. The region that is now Northern Ireland was the bedrock of the Irish war of resistance against English programmes of colonialism in the late 16th century, the English-controlled Kingdom of Ireland had been declared by the English king Henry VIII in 1542, but Irish resistance made English control fragmentary. Victories by English forces in war and further Protestant victories in the Williamite War in Ireland toward the close of the 17th century solidified Anglican rule in Ireland. In Northern Ireland, the victories of the Siege of Derry and their intention was to materially disadvantage the Catholic community and, to a lesser extent, the Presbyterian community. In the context of open institutional discrimination, the 18th century saw secret, militant societies develop in communities in the region and act on sectarian tensions in violent attacks. Following this, in an attempt to quell sectarianism and force the removal of discriminatory laws, the new state, formed in 1801, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was governed from a single government and parliament based in London. Between 1717 and 1775 some 250,000 people from Ulster emigrated to the British North American colonies and it is estimated that there are more than 27 million Scotch-Irish Americans now living in the US. By the close of the century, autonomy for Ireland within the United Kingdom, in 1912, after decades of obstruction from the House of Lords, Home Rule became a near-certainty. A clash between the House of Commons and House of Lords over a controversial budget produced the Parliament Act 1911, which enabled the veto of the Lords to be overturned. The House of Lords veto had been the unionists main guarantee that Home Rule would not be enacted, in 1914, they smuggled thousands of rifles and rounds of ammunition from Imperial Germany for use by the Ulster Volunteers, a paramilitary organisation opposed to the implementation of Home Rule
16.
Irish War of Independence
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The Irish War of Independence or Anglo-Irish War or the Tan War was a guerrilla war fought from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army and the British security forces in Ireland. It was an escalation of the Irish revolutionary period into armed conflict, in the December 1918 election, the Irish republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland. On 21 January 1919 they formed a government and declared independence from Britain. Later that day, two members of the British-organized armed police force, the Royal Irish Constabulary, were dead in County Tipperary by IRA members acting on their own initiative. This is often seen as the beginning of the conflict, for much of 1919, IRA activity primarily involved capturing weapons and freeing republican prisoners. In September that year the British government outlawed the Dáil and Sinn Féin, the IRA began ambushing RIC and British Army patrols, attacking their barracks and forcing isolated barracks to be abandoned. The British government bolstered the RIC with recruits from Britain—the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries—who became notorious for ill-discipline, the conflict as a result is often referred to as the Black and Tan War or simply the Tan War. While around 300 people had killed in the conflict up to late 1920. A week later, seventeen Auxiliaries were killed by the IRA in an ambush at Kilmichael in County Cork, the British government declared martial law in much of southern Ireland. The centre of Cork City was burnt out by British forces in December 1920, violence continued to escalate over the next seven months, when 1,000 people were killed and 4,500 republicans were interned. The fighting was concentrated in Munster, Dublin and Belfast. These three locations saw over 75% of the conflicts fatalities, violence in Ulster, especially Belfast, was notable for its sectarian character and its high number of Catholic civilian victims. Both sides agreed to a truce on 11 July 1921, the post-ceasefire talks led to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921. However, six counties remained within the United Kingdom. After the ceasefire, political and sectarian violence between republicans and loyalists continued in Northern Ireland for many months, in June 1922, disagreement among republicans over the Anglo-Irish Treaty led to an eleven-month civil war. The Irish Free State awarded 62,868 medals for service during the War of Independence, since the 1880s, Irish nationalists in the Irish Parliamentary Party had been demanding Home Rule, or self-government, from Britain. Fringe organisations, such as Arthur Griffiths Sinn Féin instead argued for some form of Irish independence, in turn, nationalists formed their own paramilitary organisation, the Irish Volunteers. But a significant minority of the Irish Volunteers opposed Irelands involvement in the war, the Volunteer movement split, a majority leaving to form the National Volunteers under Redmond
17.
Irish Civil War
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The civil war was waged between two opposing groups, Irish republicans and Irish nationalists, over the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The forces of the Provisional Government supported the Treaty, while the Republican opposition saw it as a betrayal of the Irish Republic, many of those who fought on both sides in the conflict had been members of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence. The Civil War was won by the Free State forces, which were armed with weapons provided by the British Government. The conflict may have claimed more lives than the War of Independence that preceded it, today, two of the main political parties in the Republic of Ireland, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, are direct descendants of the opposing sides of the war. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was agreed to end the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence between the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the treaty provided for a self-governing Irish state, having its own army and police. The Treaty also allowed Northern Ireland to opt out of the new state, the British suggested this dominion in secret correspondence even before treaty negotiations began, but Sinn Féin leader Éamon de Valera rejected the dominion. The treaty also stipulated that members of the new Irish Oireachtas would have to take the following Oath of Allegiance I and this oath was highly objectionable to many Irish Republicans. Furthermore, the partition of Ireland, which had already decided by the Westminster parliament in the Government of Ireland Act 1920, was effectively confirmed in the Anglo-Irish treaty. All these issues were the cause of a split in the IRA, however, anti-treaty militants in 1922 believed that the treaty would never deliver full Irish independence. The split over the treaty was deeply personal, many of the leaders on both sides had been close friends and comrades during the War of Independence. This made their disagreement over the treaty all the more bitter and he said that he felt deeply betrayed when de Valera refused to stand by the agreement that the plenipotentiaries had negotiated with David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. De Valera, for his part, was furious that Collins, Dáil Éireann narrowly passed the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64 votes to 57 on 7 January 1922. Following the Treatys ratification, in accordance with article 17 of the Treaty and its authority under the Treaty was to provide a provisional arrangement for the administration of Southern Ireland during the interval before the establishment of the Irish Free State. In accordance with the Treaty, the British Government transferred the powers, before the British Government transferred such powers, the members of the Provisional Government each signified in writing acceptance of. Upon the Treatys ratification, de Valera resigned as President of the Republic and he challenged the right of the Dáil to approve the treaty, saying that its members were breaking their oath to the Irish Republic. De Valera continued to promote a compromise whereby the new Irish Free State would be in association with the British Commonwealth rather than be a member of it. In early March, he formed the Cumann na Poblachta party while remaining a member of Sinn Féin and commenced a speaking tour of the more republican province of Munster on 17 March 1922. In a letter to the Irish Independent on 23 March, de Valera accepted the accuracy of their report of his comment about wading through blood, but deplored that the newspaper had published it
18.
Irish Free State
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The Irish Free State was an independent state established in 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. That treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between the forces of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic, the Irish Republican Army, and British Crown forces, the Free State was established as a Dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations. It comprised 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland, Northern Ireland, which comprised the remaining six counties, exercised its right under the Treaty to opt out of the new state. W. T. Cosgrave, who had led both of these governments since August 1922, became the first President of the Executive Council, the legislature consisted of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann, also known as the Senate. Members of the Dáil were required to take an Oath of Allegiance, the oath was a key issue for opponents of the Treaty, who refused to take the oath and therefore did not take their seats. Pro-Treaty members, who formed Cumann na nGaedheal in 1923, held a majority in the Dáil from 1922 to 1927. In the first months of the Free State, the Irish Civil War was waged between the newly established National Army and the anti-Treaty IRA, who refused to recognise the state. The Civil War ended in victory for the government forces, with the anti-Treaty forces dumping its arms in May 1923, the anti-Treaty political party, Sinn Féin, refused to take its seats in the Dáil, leaving the relatively small Labour Party as the only opposition party. In 1926, when Sinn Féin president Éamon de Valera failed to have this policy reversed, he resigned from Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil entered the Dáil following the 1927 general election, and entered government after the Irish general election,1932, when it became the largest party. De Valera abolished the Oath of Allegiance and embarked on a war with Britain. In 1937 he drafted a new constitution, which was passed by a referendum in July of that year, the Free State came to an end with the coming into force of the new constitution on 29 December 1937. Under the new constitution the Irish state was named Ireland, meanwhile, opposition increased to Irelands participation in World War I in Europe and the Middle East. This came about when the Irish Parliamentary Party supported the Allied cause in World War I in response to the passing of the Third Home Rule Bill in 1914. Many people had begun to doubt whether the Bill, passed by Westminster in September 1914 but suspended for the duration of the war, Sinn Féin, the Irish Party and all other Nationalist elements joined forces in opposition to the idea during the Conscription Crisis of 1918. At the same time the Irish Parliamentary lost in support on account of the crisis, Irish republicans felt further emboldened by successful anti-monarchical revolutions in the Russian Empire, the German Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Sinn Féin party, founded by Arthur Griffith in 1905, had espoused non-violent separatism, under Éamon de Valeras leadership from 1917, it campaigned aggressively and militantly for an Irish republic. On 21 January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs, refusing to sit at Westminster, assembled in Dublin and it affirmed the formation of an Irish Republic and passed a Declaration of Independence, the irish people is resolved. To promote the common weal, to re-establish justice, with equal rights and equal opportunity for every citizen
19.
Governor-General of the Irish Free State
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The Governor-General was the official representative of the sovereign of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1936. By convention, the Office of Governor-General was largely ceremonial, for this reason, the offices role was diminished over time by nationalist prime ministers and legislators. The 1931 enactment in London of the Statute of Westminster gave the Irish Free States full legislative independence, however, the Irish considered that full legislative independence had been achieved in 1922. The role of governor-general in the Irish Free State was officially abolished on 11 December 1936, at the time of Edward VIIIs abdication as king of the United Kingdom, the governor-general was appointed by the king on the advice of his Irish ministers. Initially, the British government had some involvement in the appointment process, however, this ended following the 1926 Imperial Conference, thenceforth, only the government of the Irish Free State was formally involved. The Free State constitution did not limit the governor-general to a term of office. But, in 1927, the Irish government decided that no governor-general would serve a longer than five years. Under the constitution of the Irish Free State, the governor-general was bound to act in accordance with the law, practice, appointment of the Cabinet, The President of the Executive Council was appointed by the governor-general after being selected by Dáil Éireann. The remaining ministers were appointed on the nomination of the president, convention and dissolution of the legislature, The governor-general, on behalf of the king, convened and dissolved the Oireachtas on the advice of the Executive Council. Signing bills into law, The king was formally, along with the Dáil, no bill could become law until it received Royal Assent, given by the governor-general on behalf of the king. Appointment of judges, All judges were appointed by the governor-general on the advice of the Executive Council, until 1928, the governor-general served an additional role as the British governments agent in the Free State. This meant that all correspondence between the British and Irish governments went through the governor-general and that he had access to British government papers. The first two governors-general lived at the Viceregal Lodge, the last governor-general resided in a specially leased private residence in Booterstown, County Dublin. The governor-general was officially referred to as His Excellency, the Irish Free State was officially established on 6 December 1922, under the terms of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. Central to the system of government was to be a Representative of the Crown. e. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the Crowns representative was expressly bound by the same constitutional conventions as the Governor General of Canada, which would limit him to a largely ceremonial role. The first two Governors-General of the Irish Free State assumed office under the pro-Treaty, Cumann na nGaedheal government of W. T. Cosgrave. When it came to choosing the first governor-general, there was speculation about a number of candidates, including the famed Irish painter Sir John Lavery and Edward
20.
Governor of Northern Ireland
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The Governor of Northern Ireland was the principal officer and representative in Northern Ireland of the British monarch. The office was established on 9 December 1922 and abolished on 18 July 1973, the Governor had possession of the Great Seal of Northern Ireland. The Governor was the successor to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Northern Ireland, the office of the Governor was abolished on 18 July 1973 under Section 32 of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, an office that had been created in 1972. The official residence of the Governor of Northern Ireland was Hillsborough Castle in County Down, following refurbishment of the Castle, the Duke of Abercorn took up residence in 1925. It remained the residence until the abolition of the office of Governor in 1973. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Governor-General of the Irish Free State
21.
Attorney-General for Ireland
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The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior to the Solicitor-General for Ireland, both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters, with the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the duties of the Attorney General and Solicitor General for Ireland were taken over by the Attorney General of Ireland. The first record of the existence of the office in Ireland, from the early 1660s, due largely to the personal prestige of Sir William Domville, the Attorney General became the chief legal adviser to the Crown. Tisdall, was for much of his tenure as Attorney General also the Government leader in the Irish House of Commons, saurin was regarded for many years as the effective head of the Irish Government. In 1841 Blackburne, on being challenged challenged about an appointment within his own office. The office of Attorney General was described at this time as being a mixture of law. Lawrence,1491 Clement Fitzleones,1502 John Barnewall, later 3rdBaron Trimlestown,1504 Nicholas Fitzsimons,1504 incomplete Thomas St. Chronicle of the law officers of Ireland. Attorney-General for Ireland, list of office holders 1835–1921, with links to their Hansard contributions, from millbanksystems. com
22.
Solicitor-General for Ireland
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The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, at least one holder of the office, Patrick Barnewall played a significant role in Government. The first record of a Solicitor General is in 1511, early Solicitors invariably held the rank of Serjeant-at-law, in the sixteenth century a Principal Solicitor for Ireland shared the duties of the office, confusingly both were usually referred to as the Solicitor. Unlike the Attorney General he was not as a rule a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, chronicle of the law officers of Ireland
23.
Government of Ireland
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The Government of Ireland is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in the Republic of Ireland. The structure of the Government of Ireland is regulated fundamentally by the Constitution of Ireland, the Government is headed by a prime minister called the Taoiseach. The deputy prime minister is called the Tánaiste, and is nominated by the Taoiseach from among the members of the Government, the Government must consist of between seven and fifteen members, according to the Constitution of Ireland. Every member of the Government must be a member of the parliament of Ireland, no more than two members of the Government may be members of Seanad Éireann, the upper house of the Oireachtas. Therefore, all members of the Government must be members of Dáil Éireann. The Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Finance must be members of the Dáil, the 7 to 15 Members of Government are generally referred to as The Cabinet. The Taoiseach is nominated by Dáil Éireann, the house of the Oireachtas. Other members of the Government are nominated by the Taoiseach, approved by Dáil Éireann, Members of the government are often styled cabinet ministers, as opposed to Ministers of State, called junior ministers, who are not in the cabinet. A minister is usually in charge of a Department of State, occasionally a minister without portfolio is appointed who is a minister and a member of the Government but not a Minister of the Government. Non members have no voting rights at Cabinet but may participate fully and normally receive circulated Cabinet Papers on the same basis as a full member of Government. The Government is advised by the Attorney General, who is not formally a member of the Government, the Chief Whip may attend meetings of the cabinet, but is not a member of the Government. In addition, the Government can choose other Ministers of State and this person is informally known as a Super Junior Minister. The current Super Junior Ministers are Paul Kehoe and Finian McGrath, Office of the President The Office of President was established by The Constitution. The President is elected directly by the people, the term of office is 7 years and a President may not serve more than 2 terms. The President must reside in or near Dublin, st. Patrick’s Hall, Dublin Castle, is the venue for Inauguration ceremonies, at which each President takes an oath as provided in the Constitution. The President represents all the people when undertaking official engagements at home, the President is Supreme Commander of the Defence Forces. There have been nine different holders of the office – Michael D. Higgins is the current President. The formal powers, the President, who does not have an executive or policy role, exercises them on the advice of the Government. Additional functions can be conferred on the President by law, a special Commission acts whenever the President is absent
24.
Executive Council of the Irish Free State
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The Executive Council was the cabinet and de facto executive branch of government of the 1922–1937 Irish Free State. Formally, executive power was vested in the Governor-General on behalf of the King, in practice, however, it was the Council that governed, since the Governor-General was bound to act on its advice. The Executive Council included a minister called the President of the Executive Council. A member of the Council was called a minister, as distinct from an extern minister who had charge of a department without being in the Council. The Executive Council could also be removed by a vote of no confidence in the Dáil, for formal and diplomatic purposes the description His Majestys Government in the Irish Free State was sometimes used. The Free State constitution provided that executive authority would be vested in the King and exercised by his Governor-General, in practice this meant that, as in Canada, the Governor-General was in most cases required to act on the advice of the Executive Council. Thus, it was the cabinet in which true authority lay, command of the Defence Forces – although the cabinet could not involve the state in a war without the consent of the Oireachtas. Introduce a money bill in the Oireachtas, once the President of the Executive Council had been appointed he nominated the Vice-President himself. The remaining cabinet ministers were nominated by the President but had to be approved by a vote of consent in the Dáil. Similarly, initially it was required that all cabinet members hold seats in the Dáil, the fact that an Executive Council that had lost the confidence of the Dáil could not request a dissolution created the possibility of a political stalemate. Unlike the modern Taoiseach of Ireland, the President of the Executive Council did not have authority to dismiss ministers individually, rather, to dismiss a single member, the whole council had to be dismissed and reformed en bloc. Additionally, the President of the Council could not ask the Governor-General to dissolve the Dáil on his own initiative and this meant that the position of the President was weaker than that of most modern prime ministers, and he was its chairman as much as he was its leader. The Executive Council was established with the coming into force of the Free State constitution in 1922 and it replaced two previous cabinets, the Aireacht of the Irish Republic and the Provisional Government. The Irish Free State had the status of a dominion of the British Commonwealth, however it differed from the executive councils of other nations. Firstly, it was a cabinet, whereas the Executive Councils of Australia, contrary to the practice in New Zealand and Australia, the executive councils of the provinces of Canada are closer in role to the Free State cabinet, and are presided over by each provinces premier. As a result of the Constitution Act 1936, the office of Governor-General was abolished, the Executive Council itself was replaced in 1937 by a new Cabinet, called simply the Government, established under the new Constitution of Ireland. After the 1926 Imperial Conference, attended by Cosgrave as President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, the altered title, as proclaimed in London, replaced the words. of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and. But the description went out of use at least by 1937, Executive Council Irish cabinets since 1919 History of the Republic of Ireland Constitution of the Irish Free State – full text from official Houses of the Oireachtas website
25.
Civil Service (United Kingdom)
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As in other states that employ the Westminster political system, Her Majestys Home Civil Service forms an inseparable part of the British government. The executive decisions of government ministers are implemented by HM Civil Service, Civil servants are employees of the Crown and not of the British parliament. Civil servants also have traditional and statutory responsibilities which to some extent protect them from being used for the political advantage of the party in power. Senior civil servants may be called to account to Parliament, as at the end of March 2016 there were 418,343 civil servants in the Home Civil Service, this is down 3. 6% on the previous year. There are two other administratively separate civil services in the United Kingdom, one is for Northern Ireland, the other is the foreign service. The heads of these services are members of the Permanent Secretaries Management Group, the Offices of State grew in England, and later the United Kingdom. Initially, as in countries, they were little more than secretariats for their leaders. In the 18th century, in response to the growth of the British Empire and economic changes, institutions such as the Office of Works, each had its own system and staff were appointed by purchase or patronage. By the 19th century, it increasingly clear that these arrangements were not working. In 1806, the Honourable East India Company established a college, the purpose of this college was to train administrators, it was established on recommendation of officials in China who had seen the imperial examination system. The civil service, based on similar to the Chinese system, was advocated by a number of Englishmen over the next several decades. The report was well-timed, because bureaucratic chaos in the Crimean War promptly caused a clamour for the change, a Civil Service Commission was accordingly set up in 1855 to oversee open recruitment and end patronage, and most of the other Northcote-Trevelyan recommendations were implemented over some years. This system was endorsed by Commissions chaired by Playfair, Ridley, MacDonnell, Tomlin. The Northcote-Trevelyan model remained essentially stable for a hundred years and this was a tribute to its success in removing corruption, delivering public services, and responding effectively to political change. Following the Second World War, however, demands for change again grew, the times were, moreover, ones of keen respect for technocracy, with the mass mobilisation of war having worked effectively, and the French National Plan apparently delivering economic success. Lord Fultons committee reported in 1968 and his 158 recommendations included the introduction of a unified grading system for all categories of staff, a Civil Service College and a central policy planning unit. The new Department was set up by Prime Minister Harold Wilsons Labour Government in 1968 and named the Civil Service Department, the first Minister was Cabinet Minister Lord Shackleton, also Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal. The first Permanent Secretary was Sir William Armstrong, who moved over from his post as Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, after the 1970 General Election, new Conservative Prime Minister Ted Heath appointed Lord Jellicoe in Lord Shackletons place
26.
Whitehall
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Whitehall is a road in the City of Westminster, Central London, which forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Square, consequently, the name Whitehall is used as a metonym for British civil service, and as the geographic name for the surrounding area. The name was taken from the Palace of Whitehall that was the residence of Kings Henry VIII through to William III, before its destruction by fire in 1698, only the Banqueting House survived. Whitehall was originally a road that led to the front of the palace. As well as government buildings, the street is known for its statues and monuments, including Britains primary war memorial. The Whitehall Theatre, now the Trafalgar Studios, has been a place for farce comedies since the mid-20th century. The name Whitehall was used for buildings in the Tudor period. It either referred to a made of light stone, or as a general term for any festival building. This included the Royal Palace of Whitehall, which in turn gave its name to the street, the street is about 0.4 miles long and runs through the City of Westminster. It is part of the A3212, a road in Central London that leads towards Chelsea via the Houses of Parliament. It runs south from Trafalgar Square, past numerous government buildings, including the old War Office building, Horse Guards, the Ministry of Defence, the Cabinet Office and it ends at the Cenotaph, the road ahead being Parliament Street. Great Scotland Yard and Horse Guards Avenue branch off to the east, the nearest tube stations are Charing Cross at the north end, and Westminster at the south. Numerous London bus routes run along Whitehall, including 12,24,53,88,159 and 453. It had become a street by the 16th century, and had become a popular place to live by the 17th, with residents including Lord Howard of Effingham. The Palace of Whitehall, to the east of the road, was originally named York Palace, the palace was redesigned in 1531–32 and became the Kings main residence later in the decade. He married Ann Boleyn here in 1533, followed by Jane Seymour in 1536, Charles I owned an extensive art collection at the palace and several of William Shakespeares plays had their first performances here. It ceased to be a residence after 1689, when William III moved to Kensington Palace. The palace was damaged by fire in 1691, following which the front entrance was redesigned by Sir Christopher Wren, in 1698, most of the palace burned to the ground owing to an accident started by a careless washerwoman
27.
Colonial Office
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It was headed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, known as the Colonial Secretary. In 1768 the separate American or Colonial Department was established, in order to deal with affairs in British North America. With the loss of the American colonies, however, the department was abolished in 1782, responsibility for the remaining colonies was given to the Home Office, and subsequently transferred to the War Office. In 1801 the War Office was renamed the War and Colonial Office under a new Secretary of State for War, in 1825 a new post of Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies was created within this office. It was held by Robert William Hay initially and his successors were James Stephen, Herman Merivale, Frederic Rogers, Robert Herbert and Robert Henry Meade. In 1854 this office was divided two and a new Colonial Office was created to deal specifically with the needs of the colonies. The Colonial Office did not have responsibility for all British possessions overseas, in 1907 the Dominion Division of the Colonial Office was created, and from 1925 separate Secretaries of State for Dominion Affairs were appointed. After the independence of India in 1947, the Dominion Office was merged with the India Office to form the Commonwealth Relations Office, in 1966, the Commonwealth Relations Office re-merged with the Colonial Office, forming the Commonwealth Office. Two years later, this department was merged into the Foreign Office, establishing the modern Foreign. It later became known as the Commonwealth Relations Office Year Book, in addition to the official List published by the Colonial Office, an edited version was also produced by Waterlow and Sons. It can be difficult to distinguish between the two versions in library catalogue descriptions, but it is still edited by Sir W. H. Mercer, K. C. M. G. One of the Crown Agents for the Colonies, but it is printed by Waterlow and Sons and it comes as near to being an Official publication as possible, but well assume that it isnt. British Empire Colonial Service List of British Empire-related topics
28.
Partition of Ireland
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The partition of Ireland was the division of the island of Ireland into two distinct jurisdictions, Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. It took place on 3 May 1921 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920, today the former is still known as Northern Ireland and forms part of the United Kingdom while the latter is now a sovereign state also named Ireland, formally known as the Republic of Ireland. The Act of 1920 was intended to create two self-governing territories within Ireland, with both remaining within the United Kingdom and it also contained provisions for co-operation between the two territories and for the eventual reunification of Ireland. Since partition, a key aspiration of Irish nationalists has been to bring about a reunited Ireland and this goal conflicts with that of the unionists in Northern Ireland, who want the region to remain part of the United Kingdom. The British and Irish government agreed, under the 1998 Belfast Agreement, in its white paper on Brexit the United Kingdom government reiterated its commitment to the Belfast Agreement. The unionist MP Horace Plunkett, who would later support home rule, exclusion was first considered by the British cabinet in 1912, in the context of Ulster unionist opposition to the Third Home Rule Bill, which was then in preparation. The Curragh incident on 20 March 1914 had already led Westminster to believe that the British Army could not be trusted to carry out their orders in Ireland, the Home Rule Crisis was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. Westminster passed the Home Rule Bill on 18 September 1914 and it immediately received Royal Assent, at the time it was widely believed that the conflict would only last for a few months. Concurrent with the Conscription Crisis of 1918, support for Irish republicanism had risen in Ireland due to the length of the war, Irish republicans were further emboldened by successful revolutions in the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. Meanwhile, Irish unionists – most of whom lived in the northeast of the island – were just as determined to maintain the Union and it was intended that each jurisdiction would be granted home rule but remain within the United Kingdom. The government of Southern Ireland never functioned, the war for independence continued until the two agreed a truce in July 1921, ending with the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921. The new state had the status of a dominion of the British Empire, on 7 December 1922 the houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland approved an address to George V, requesting that its territory not be included in the Irish Free State. This was presented to the king the day on 8 December 1922. Following independence, the state gradually severed all remaining constitutional links with the United Kingdom. In 1937 the Free State was renamed Ireland in its new constitution, in 1949 the state was declared to be a republic, under the Republic of Ireland Act. The Government of Ireland Act 1920, which came into effect on 3 May 1921, provided for separate self-governing parliaments for Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, the Irish War of Independence led to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The treaty was given effect in the United Kingdom through the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922. Under the former Act, at 1pm on 6 December 1922, the treaty, and the laws which implemented it, allowed Northern Ireland to opt out of the Irish Free State
29.
Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland
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The Civil Service of Ireland is the collective term for the permanent staff of the departments of state and certain state agencies who advise and work for the Government of Ireland. It consists of two components, the Civil Service of the Government and the Civil Service of the State. Whilst these two components are largely theoretical they do have some fundamental operational differences, the civil service of the Irish Free State, as the predecessor of Ireland, was not formally established by law. The exact status and compensation of such people was further codified in law by the Civil Service Compensation Act,1929 and this had the effect that the state became responsible for essentially all former British civil servants based in the new state. Entry to the service was generally by competitive examination. Applicants also had to meet nationality requirements, in retrospect however this often became criticised as being a rigid system in which promotion was based primarily on ones seniority and not on the ability of forward thinking or risk taking. A result of this was that the service became regarded as retaining its British outlook until well into the 1950s. Whitaker was among a new generation of civil servants who would break the mould, a significant reform of the civil service occurred by the Civil Service Regulation Act,1956 and Civil Service Commissioners Act,1956. These two acts however were deeply controversial in that they placed in law the requirement that many women would face mandatory retirement on marriage. This provision was rescinded by the Civil Service Act,1973. Since this time government departments have been allowed to recruit directly, all civil servants are expected to be impartial, and to act within the law. A member of the Civil Service is expected to maintain political impartiality, certain grades are also barred from seeking nomination or election to local authorities. Civil servants above the clerical grade must not take part in public debate outside their official duties. For instance privately contributing to newspapers, radio, or television would be considered a violation of this principle. All civil servants, including those on career break or retirement are subject to the Official Secrets Act 1963, as amended, exceptions to this include the Freedom of Information Act. Civil servants must not take part in anything that may involve a conflict of interest, Civil servant grades and positions defined as designated positions under the Ethics in Public Office Acts must make a disclosure of interests where they have a relevant interest. The grading structure is based on that of the British Civil Service. Traditionally the Administrative Officer grade was the highest grade at which one could join the civil service, entry positions are recruited openly by the Public Appointments Service
30.
Northern Ireland Civil Service
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The Northern Ireland Civil Service, is the permanent bureaucracy of employees that supports the Northern Ireland Executive, the devolved government of Northern Ireland. The NICS is one of three services in the United Kingdom, the others being the Home Civil Service and HM Diplomatic Service. The heads of these services are members of the Permanent Secretaries Management Group, Northern Ireland was established by the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and the first devolved Parliament of Northern Ireland took office on 7 June 1921. In 1965, that department was split between the Ministry of Health and Social Services and the new Ministry of Development, a further Ministry of Community Relations was established in 1969, in response to the early stages of the Troubles. The Parliament of Northern Ireland was dissolved on 30 March 1972, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland assumed responsibility for government and was assisted by a new Northern Ireland Office. The NIO absorbed the Ministry of Home Affairs and took responsibility for security, justice. Following the Sunningdale Agreement, a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive briefly held office between 1 January 1974 and 28 May 1974, the Troubles continued in the absence of a political settlement. Between May 1974 and December 1999, departments were led politically by junior ministers in the Northern Ireland Office, UK Governments alternated between the Conservative and Labour parties, neither of which included members of parliament from Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Civil Service, uniquely in the British Isles, the Executive was suspended several times due to political disputes and each suspension resulted in the return of direct rule. Devolution was restored on 8 May 2007 and has continued without interruption since then, devolution resulted in an increase in the number of Civil Service departments, accountable to a cross-community Executive of 11 ministers. The Northern Ireland Office continues in operation, representing the interests of the United Kingdom Government in Northern Ireland, following the Fresh Start Agreement, the parties of Northern Ireland agreed that the number of Executive departments should be reduced. The public sector constituted 31. 3% of the regions workforce, the PSMG is in charge of both the Northern Ireland Civil Service and Her Majestys Civil Service. The group is chaired by Head of the Home Civil Service, the Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, the group also consists of all first permanent secretaries and other selected permanent secretaries and directors general. The Civil Service Commissioners for Northern Ireland are not civil servants and are independent of the Executive and their main functions are the same as the Civil Service Commissioners of Her Majestys Home Civil Service
31.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
32.
Kingdom of Ireland
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The Kingdom of Ireland was a client state of the Kingdom of England that existed on Ireland from 1542 until 1800. It came into being when the Parliament of Ireland passed the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, the territory of the Kingdom had previously had the status of a lordship of the Crown. The Parliament of Ireland passed the Acts of Union 1800 by which it abolished itself, the act was also passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. The act also had the effect of establishing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the first day of 1801 by uniting the Crowns of Ireland, in its early years, the Kingdom of Ireland had limited recognition. While some Protestant powers in Europe recognised Henry and his heir Edward as monarch of Ireland, Henrys daughter, Queen Mary I of England, was recognised as Queen of Ireland by Pope Paul IV in 1555. The papal bull Laudabiliter of Pope Adrian IV was issued in 1155 and it granted the Angevin King Henry II of England the title Dominus Hibernae. Laudabiliter authorised the king to invade Ireland, to bring the country into the European sphere, in return, Henry was required to remit a penny per hearth of the tax roll to the Pope. This was reconfirmed by Adrians successor Pope Alexander III in 1172, when Pope Clement VII excommunicated the king of England, Henry VIII, in 1533, the constitutional position of the lordship in Ireland became uncertain. Henry had broken away from the Holy See and declared himself the head of the Church in England and he had petitioned Rome to procure an annulment of his marriage to Queen Catherine. The Treason Act 1537 was passed to counteract this, following the failed revolt of Silken Thomas in 1534–35, Grey, the lord deputy, had some military successes against several clans in the late 1530s, and took their submissions. By 1540 most of Ireland seemed at peace and under the control of the kings Dublin administration, Henry was proclaimed King of Ireland by the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, an Act of the Irish Parliament. The new kingdom was not recognised by the Catholic monarchies in Europe, after the death of King Edward VI, Henrys son, the papal bull of 1555 recognised the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I as Queen of Ireland. The link of personal union of the Crown of Ireland to the Crown of England became enshrined in Catholic canon law, in this fashion, the Kingdom of Ireland was ruled by the reigning King of England. This placed the new Kingdom of Ireland in personal union with the Kingdom of England, in line with its expanded role and self-image, the administration established the Kings Inns for barristers in 1541, and the Ulster King of Arms to regulate heraldry in 1552. Proposals to establish a university in Dublin were delayed until 1592, in 1603 James VI King of Scots became James I of England, uniting the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland in a personal union. The political order of the kingdom was interrupted by the Wars of the Three Kingdoms starting in 1639, during the subsequent interregnum period, England, Scotland and Ireland were ruled as a republic until 1660. This period saw the rise of the loyalist Irish Catholic Confederation within the kingdom and, from 1653, the kingdoms order was restored 1660 with the restoration of Charles II. Without any public dissent, Charless reign was backdated to his fathers execution in 1649, Poynings Law was repealed in 1782 in what came to be known as the Constitution of 1782, granting Ireland legislative independence
33.
Lordship of Ireland
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The Lordship of Ireland, sometimes referred to retroactively as Norman Ireland, was a period of feudal rule in Ireland between 1177 and 1542 under the King of England, styled as Lord of Ireland. The lordship was created as a Papal possession following the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169–71, as the lord of Ireland was also the king of England, he was represented locally by a governor, styled between 1660–1922 as the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Ostensibly, the lordship extended throughout all of Ireland, however, in reality, the kings rule only ever extended to parts of the island. Areas under English rule expanded and retreated over time, many areas remained separate and outside English rule until the 16th century. The period was brought to a close by the creation of the Kingdom of Ireland in 1542, further, the former Irish church had never sent its dues to Rome. Henrys primary motivation for invading Ireland 1171 was to control Strongbow, in 1175 the Treaty of Windsor was agreed by Henry and Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, High King of Ireland. The popes asserted the right to grant sovereignty over islands to different monarchs on the basis of the Donation of Constantine, doubts were cast by eminent scholars on Laudabiliter itself in the 19th century, but it was confirmed by the letters of Pope Alexander III. The Papal power to grant also fell within the remit of Dictatus papae, while Laudabiliter had referred to the kingdom of Ireland, the Papacy was ambiguous about continuing to describe it as a kingdom as early as 1185. Having captured a part of Ireland on the east coast. For he had divided his territories between his sons, with the youngest being nicknamed Johan sanz Terre as he was left without lands to rule, Henry had wanted John to be crowned King of Ireland on his first visit in 1185, but Pope Lucius III specifically refused permission. Dominus was the title of a king who had not yet been crowned. Lucius then died while John was in Ireland, and Henry obtained consent from Pope Urban III and ordered a crown of gold, in late 1185 the crown was ready, but Johns visit had by then proved a complete failure, so Henry cancelled the coronation. The Lordship thrived in the 13th century during the Medieval Warm Period, the feudal system was introduced, and the Parliament of Ireland first sat in 1297. Some counties were created by shiring, while walled towns and castles became a feature of the landscape, but little of this engagement with mainstream European life was of benefit to those the Normans called the mere Irish. Mere derived from the Latin merus, meaning pure, environmental decay and deforestation continued unabated throughout this period, being greatly exacerbated by the English newcomers and an increase in population. The Norman élite and churchmen spoke Norman French and Latin, many poorer settlers spoke English, Welsh and Flemish. The Gaelic areas spoke Irish dialects, the Yola language of County Wexford was a survivor of the early English dialects. The Lordship suffered invasion from Scotland by Edward Bruce in 1315–18, the earldom of Ulster ended in 1333, and the Black Death of 1348–50 impacted more on the town-dwelling Normans than on the remaining Gaelic clans
34.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again
