Kingdom of Ireland
- This article is about the prior realm. For the modern state, see Republic of Ireland; for other uses of Ireland, see Ireland (disambiguation).
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| Capital | Dublin | |
| Head of state | King of Ireland | |
| King's representative: | Variously called Judiciar, Lord Deputy or Lord Lieutenant of Ireland | |
| Head of government: | Chief Secretary for Ireland | |
| Parliament: | Irish House of Commons and Irish House of Lords | |
The Kingdom of Ireland was the name given to the English-ruled Irish state in 1541, by an act of the Parliament of Ireland. It replaced the Lordship of Ireland, which had been created in 1171. King Henry VIII thus became the first King of Ireland since the High Kingship, which had existed before the Anglo-Norman invasion.
The Throne of Ireland was occupied by the reigning King of England. The Kingdom of Ireland was governed by an executive under the control of the Lord Deputy, later called Lord Lieutenant. While some Irishmen held the post, most Lords Deputy were English noblemen.
Royal Coat of Arms after the Act of Union 1800
Displayed over the 19th century King's Inns in Dublin. These arms of dominion are similar to the royal arms before the union inasmuch as the arms of Ireland (the harp) form one quarter of the shield with the remaining quarters referring to the king's other realms: England, Scotland and Hanover.
The kingdom was legislated for by the bicameral Parliament of Ireland, made up of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and which almost always met in Dublin. The powers of the Irish parliament were restricted by a series of laws, notably Poynings Law of 1492. Roman Catholics and later Presbyterians were for much of its later history excluded from membership of the Irish parliament. In the eighteenth century parliament met in a new, purpose-designed parliament house, the first purpose-designed two-chamber parliament house in the world) in College Green in the heart of Dublin.
Some restrictions were repealed in 1782 in what came to be known as the Constitution of 1782. Parliament in this period came to be known as Grattan's Parliament, after one of the principal Irish political opposition leaders of the period, Henry Grattan.
By the Act of Union of the Irish Parliament, the Kingdom of Ireland merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Great Britain to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The Irish Parliament ceased to exist, though the executive, presided over by the Lord Lieutenant, remained in place until 1922. The Act was preceded by the failed rebellion and French invasion of 1798, and was the subject of much controversy, involving much bribery of the Irish MPs to ensure passage.
In 1922, the 26 southern and western counties that formed the Irish Free State left the United Kingdom. Under the Irish Free State Constitution, the King became King in Ireland. This was changed by the Royal Titles Act, 1927, by which the King explicitly became king of all his dominions in their own right, becoming fully King of Ireland instead. Though Kevin O'Higgins, Vice-President of the Executive Council (ie, deputy prime minister), did suggest resurrecting the 'Kingdom of Ireland' as a dual monarchy to link Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, with the King of Ireland being crowned in a public ceremony in Phoenix Park in Dublin, the idea was abandoned after O'Higgins' assassination by anti-Treaty IRA men in 1927.