Council of Ireland

The Council of Ireland (Irish: Comhairle na hÉireann) was a statutory body established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 as an all-Ireland law-making authority with limited jurisdiction, initially over both Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, and later solely over Northern Ireland. It had 41 members: 13 members of each of the Houses of Commons of Southern Ireland and of Northern Ireland; 7 members of each of the Senates of Southern Ireland and of Northern Ireland; and a President chosen by the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. It was abolished in 1925.

Under Section 2 of the 1920 Act, the Council was established with the following purpose:

With a view to the eventual establishment of a Parliament for the whole of Ireland, and to bringing about harmonious action between the parliaments and governments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland, and to the promotion of mutual intercourse and uniformity in relation to matters affecting the whole of Ireland, and to providing for the administration of services which the two parliaments mutually agree should be administered uniformly throughout the whole of Ireland, or which by virtue of this Act are to be so administered, there shall be constituted, as soon as may be after the appointed day, a Council to be called the Council of Ireland.

Under Section 7 of the 1920 Act, the Council could make orders concerning matters which were within the remit of the respective Parliaments of Southern and Northern Ireland. The Council’s Orders required royal assent in the same way Bills of either of the Parliaments also required such assent.

The Council was duly established on the “Appointed Day”, 3 May 1921. On 23 June 1921, the House of Commons of Northern Ireland duly elected its 13 chosen members to the Council:

The House of Commons of Southern Ireland was a body which although established, never functioned and never elected members to the Council; most of its members instead sat in the republican Second Dáil. In fact, the Council of Ireland never met.

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