The Local Government Board for Ireland was an agency of the Dublin Castle administration that liaised with the various local authorities in Ireland. It was created in 1872 and lasted until partition in 1921–22.

History

The Board was created under the Local Government Board (Ireland) Act 1872, mirroring the

Local Government Board The Local Government Board (LGB) was a British Government supervisory body overseeing local administration in England and Wales from 1871 to 1919. The LGB was created by the Local Government Board Act 1871 ( 34 & 35 Vict. c. 70) and took over the ...

created for

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

in 1871. Upon its establishment, the Board took over the functions of the Irish Poor Law Commissioners with respect to Boards of Guardians of Poor Law Unions, and also dealt with urban municipal government ( town commissioners and borough corporations). Its headquarters were in the Custom House, Dublin. There were five Board members: two political ''ex-officio'' members, the

Chief Secretary for Ireland The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British Dublin Castle administration, administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretar ...

(who was president) and the

Under-Secretary for Ireland The Under-Secretary for Ireland (Permanent Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) was the permanent head (or most senior civil servant) of the British administration in Ireland prior to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 192 ...

; and three permanent technocratic members, including the vice-president and the medical commissioner (a qualified physician for addressing

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the de ...

issues). The first three permanent members were the three final Poor Law Commissioners. Generally the vice-president was in effective charge with the political members absent; but in

Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (; 25 July 184819 March 1930) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As Foreign Secretary ...

's presidency there were tensions. Dublin Castle tried to maintain a balance of Catholic and Protestant Board members. The

Congested Districts Board for Ireland The Congested Districts Board for Ireland was established by Arthur Balfour, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, in 1891 to alleviate poverty and congested living conditions in the west and parts of the northwest of Ireland. William Lawson Micks w ...

was set up separately in 1891 to deal specifically with areas with large numbers of small uneconomic farms. After the

Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 ( 61 & 62 Vict. c. 37) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that established a system of local government in Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots diale ...

, the Local Government Board dealt with the new county and district councils, including the initial recommendations for county boundary adjustments under the 1898 act. Many local councils were

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

-controlled and these frequently resented the Board, regarding it as bureaucratic and imperialist.

Supersession

County and district councils controlled by

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

after the 1920 local elections bypassed the Local Government Board in favour of the self-proclaimed

Irish Republic The Irish Republic ( or ) was a Revolutionary republic, revolutionary state that Irish Declaration of Independence, declared its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdict ...

's Department of Local Government, with W. T. Cosgrave as Minister. On 25 May 1921, near the end of the Republic's guerrilla war, the Custom House was burned out by Dublin Brigade of the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...

, destroying most of the Board's records. After partition, in Northern Ireland the Board's functions passed to the Department of Home Affairs in 1921 and the Department of Health and Local Government on its creation in 1944. In the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924 formally transferred the Board's functions to the Department of Local Government and Public Health, (now the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage), which has remained in the Custom House.

References

Sources

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Citations

{{reflist

External links

author "Local Government Board for Ireland"
from

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

, includes all annual reports 1872–1921 1872 establishments in Ireland 1924 disestablishments in Ireland History of local government in Ireland History of local government in the United Kingdom History of Ireland (1801–1923)