# Chief Secretary for Ireland

The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", from the early 19th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland, roughly equivalent to the role of a Secretary of State, such as the similar role of Secretary of State for Scotland. Usually it was the Chief Secretary, rather than the Lord Lieutenant, who sat in the British Cabinet. 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. Executive responsibility within the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland was effectively transferred to the President of the Executive Council (i.e. the prime minister) and the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland respectively.

## History of the office

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. Poynings' Law in particular meant that the Parliament of Ireland lacked an independent power of legislation, and the Crown kept control of executive authority in the hands of the Lord Lieutenant and its own appointees, rather than in the hands of ministers responsible to the Irish parliament.
In 1560, Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland ordered the Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of Sussex, to appoint John Challoner of Dublin as Secretary of State for Ireland "because at this present there is none appointed to be Clerk of our Council there, and considering how more meet it were, that in our realm there were for our honour one to be our Secretary there for the affairs of our Realm". 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, Thomas Pelham being the first individual appointed to both offices concurrently in 1796.
Over time, the post of Chief Secretary gradually increased in importance, particularly because of his role as manager of legislative business for the Government in the Irish House of Commons, in which he sat as an MP. 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 legislation.
Chief Secretary Viscount Castlereagh played a key role in the enactment of the Act of Union which passed in the Irish Parliament on its second attempt in 1800 through the exercise of patronage and direct bribery. Upon the Union on 1 January 1801, the Kingdom of Ireland was merged into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and 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.
The last Chief Secretary to represent an Irish constituency while in office was Chichester Parkinson-Fortescue, MP for County Louth, who served from 1868 to 1871.
The last Chief Secretary was Sir Hamar Greenwood, who left office in October 1922. The Irish Free State, comprising the greater part of Ireland, would become independent on 6 December 1922. In Northern Ireland, a new Government of Northern Ireland was established, with a Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. This government was suspended in 1972, and the position of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was created as a position in the British cabinet.

## List of chief secretaries for Ireland

This list includes holders of a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually it was the Chief Secretary, rather than the Lord Lieutenant, who sat in the British Cabinet. Exceptions were the periods from 29 June 1895 to 8 August 1902, when the Lord Lieutenant Lord Cadogan sat in the Cabinet and the Chief Secretaries Gerald Balfour until 9 November 1900 did not sit there and George Wyndham from that date also sat there, and from 28 October 1918 to 2 April 1921, when both the Lord Lieutenant Lord French and the Chief Secretaries Edward Shortt, Ian Macpherson and Sir Hamar Greenwood sat in the Cabinet.

### Kingdom of Ireland

1566–1660 :
| Name | Portrait | Term of office | Term of office | Served under |
| Edward Waterhouse | | 20 January 1566 | 9 October 1567 | Sir Henry Sidney |
| Edward Waterhouse (second time) | | 28 October 1568 | | Sir Henry Sidney |
| Edmund Tremayne | | 15 July 1569 | 31 March 1571 | Sir Henry Sidney |
| Philip Williams | | post March 1571 | 17 September 1575 | Sir William Fitzwilliam |
| Edmund Molyneux | | 18 September 1575 | | Sir Henry Sidney |
| Edmund Spenser | | 7 September 1580 | 30 August 1582 | The Lord Grey de Wilton |
| Philip Williams | | 21 June 1584 | 10 August 1594 | Sir John Perrot Sir William FitzWilliam |
| Richard Cooke | | 11 August 1594 | 21 May 1597 | Sir William Russell |
| Philip Williams | | 22 May 1597 | 13 October 1597 | The Lord Burgh |
| Henry Wotton | | 15 April 1599 | 4 September 1599 | The Earl of Essex |
| Francis Mitchell | | 28 February 1600 | March 1600 | The Lord Mountjoy |
| George Cranmer | | March 1600 | Died 16 July 1600 | The Lord Mountjoy |
| Fynes Moryson | | 14 November 1600 | 31 May 1603 | The Lord Mountjoy |
| John Bingley | | 1 June 1603 | 2 February 1605 | Sir George Carey |
| Henry Piers | | 3 February 1605 | 10 February 1616 | Sir Arthur Chichester |
| Henry Holcroft | | 30 August 1616 | 3 May 1622 | Sir Oliver St John |
| Sir John Veele | | 8 September 1622 | 25 October 1629 | The Viscount Falkland |
| George Lane | | 21 January 1644 | April 1646 | The Marquess of Ormonde |
| 1660–1701 |||||
| Name | Portrait | Term of office | Term of office | Served under |
| Matthew Locke | | 1660 | 1660 | The Lord Robartes |
| Sir Thomas Page | | 1662 | 1669 | The Duke of Ormonde: The Earl of Ossory |
| Henry Ford | | 1669 | 1670 | The Lord Robartes |
| Sir Ellis Leighton | | 1670 | 1672 | The Lord Berkeley of Stratton |
| Sir Henry Ford | | 1672 | 1673 | The Earl of Essex |
| William Harbord | | 1673 | 1676 | The Earl of Essex |
| Sir Cyril Wyche | | 1677 | 1682 | The Duke of Ormonde |
| Sir William Ellis | | 1682 | 1685 | The Duke of Ormonde |
| Sir Paul Rycaut | | 1686 | 1687 | The Earl of Clarendon |
| Thomas Sheridan | | 1687 | 1688 | The Earl of Tyrconnell |
| Bishop Patrick Tyrrell | | 1688 | 1689 | The Earl of Tyrconnell |
| John Davis | | 1690 | 1692 | |
| Sir Cyril Wyche | | 1692 | 1693 | The Viscount Sydney |
| Sir Richard Aldworth | | 1693 | 1696 | The Lord Capell |
| William Palmer | | 1696 | 1697 | |
| Matthew Prior | | 1697 | 1699 | |
| Humphrey May | | 1699 | 1701 | |
| 1701–1750 |||||
| Name | Portrait | Term of office | Term of office | Served under |
| Francis Gwyn | | 1701 | 1703 | The Earl of Rochester |
| Edward Southwell | | 1703 | 1707 | The Duke of Ormonde |
| George Dodington | | 1707 | 1708 | The Earl of Pembroke |
| Joseph Addison | | 1708 | 1710 | The Earl of Wharton |
| Edward Southwell | | 1710 | 1713 | The Duke of Ormonde |
| Sir John Stanley, Bt | | 1713 | 1714 | The Duke of Shrewsbury |
| Joseph Addison | | 1714 | 1715 | The Earl of Sunderland |
| Martin Bladen and Charles Delafaye | | 1715 | 1717 | |
| Edward Webster | | 1717 | 1720 | The Duke of Bolton |
| Horatio Walpole | | 1720 | 1721 | The Duke of Grafton |
| Edward Hopkins | | 1721 | 1724 | The Duke of Grafton |
| Thomas Clutterbuck | | 1724 | 1730 | The Lord Carteret |
| Walter Cary (also spelt 'Carey') | | 1730 | 1737 | The Duke of Dorset |
| Sir Edward Walpole | | 1737 | 1739 | The Duke of Devonshire |
| Thomas Townshend | | 1739 | 1739 | The Duke of Devonshire |
| Hon. Henry Bilson Legge | | 1739 | 1741 | The Duke of Devonshire |
| Viscount Duncannon | | 1741 | 1745 | The Duke of Devonshire |
| Richard Liddell | | 1745 | 1746 | The Earl of Chesterfield |
| Sewallis Shirley | | 1746 | 1746 | The Earl of Chesterfield |
| Edward Weston | | 1746 | 1750 | The Earl of Harrington |
| 1750–1801 |||||
| Name | Portrait | Term of office | Term of office | Served under |
| Lord George Sackville | | 1750 | 1755 | The Duke of Dorset |
| Hon. Henry Seymour Conway | | 1755 | 1757 | The Duke of Devonshire |
| Richard Rigby | | 1757 | 1761 | The Duke of Bedford |
| William Gerard Hamilton | | 1761 | 1764 | The Earl of Halifax; The Earl of Northumberland |
| The Earl of Drogheda | | 1764 | 1765 | The Earl of Northumberland |
| Sir Charles Bunbury | | 1765 | 1765 | The Viscount Weymouth |
| Viscount Conway | | 1765 | 1766 | The Earl of Hertford |
| Hon. Augustus Hervey | | 1766 | 1767 | The Earl of Bristol |
| Theophilus Jones | | 1767 | 1767 | The Earl of Bristol |
| Lord Frederick Campbell | | 1767 | 1768 | The Viscount Townshend |
| Sir George Macartney | | 1769 | 1772 | The Viscount Townshend |
| Sir John Blaquiere | | 1772 | 1776 | The Earl Harcourt |
| Sir Richard Heron | | 1776 | 1780 | The Earl of Buckinghamshire |
| William Eden | | 1780 | 1782 | The Earl of Carlisle |
| Hon. Richard FitzPatrick | | 1782 | 1782 | The Duke of Portland |
| William Grenville | | 1782 | 1783 | The Earl Temple |
| William Windham | | 1783 | 1783 | The Earl of Northington |
| Hon. Thomas Pelham | | 1783 | 1784 | The Earl of Northington |
| Thomas Orde | | 1784 | 1787 | The Duke of Rutland |
| Alleyne FitzHerbert | | 1787 | 1789 | The Marquess of Buckingham |
| Hon. Robert Hobart | | 1789 | 1793 | The Marquess of Buckingham; The Earl of Westmorland |
| Sylvester Douglas | | 1793 | 1794 | The Earl of Westmorland |
| Viscount Milton | | 1794 | 1795 | The Earl FitzWilliam |
| Hon. Thomas Pelham | | 1795 | 1798 | The Earl Camden |
| Viscount Castlereagh | | 1798 | 1801 | The Marquess Cornwallis |

### United Kingdom

1801–1852 :
| Name | Name | Portrait | Term of office | Term of office | Political party |
| | Charles Abbot MP for Helston | | 1801 | 1802 | Tory |
| | William Wickham MP for Cashel | | 1802 | 1804 | Tory |
| | Sir Evan Nepean, Bt MP for Bridport | | 1804 | 1805 | Tory |
| | Nicholas Vansittart MP for Old Sarum | | 1805 | 1805 | Tory |
| | Charles Long MP for Wendover | | 1805 | 1806 | Tory |
| | William Elliot MP for Peterborough | | 1806 | 1807 | Whig |
| | Sir Arthur Wellesley MP for Tralee (1807) MP for Mitchell (1807) MP for Newport (1807–09) | | 1807 | 1809 | Tory |
| | Robert Dundas MP for Midlothian | | 1809 | 1809 | Tory |
| | William Wellesley-Pole MP for Queen's County | | 1809 | 1812 | Tory |
| | Robert Peel MP for Chippenham (1812–17) MP for Oxford University (1817–29) | | 1812 | 1818 | Tory |
| | Charles Grant MP for Inverness-shire | | 1818 | 1821 | Tory |
| | Henry Goulburn MP for West Looe (1818–26) MP for Armagh City (1826–31) | | 29 December 1821 | 29 April 1827 | Tory |
| | William Lamb MP for Bletchingley | | 29 April 1827 | 21 June 1828 | Whig |
| | Lord Francis Leveson-Gower MP for Sutherland | | 21 June 1828 | 30 July 1830 | Tory |
| | Sir Henry Hardinge MP for St Germans | | 30 July 1830 | 15 November 1830 | Tory |
| | Edward Smith-Stanley MP for Windsor (1831–32) MP for North Lancashire (1832–44) | | 29 November 1830 | 29 March 1833 | Whig |
| | Sir John Hobhouse, Bt MP for Westminster | | 29 March 1833 | May 1833 | Whig |
| | Edward Littleton MP for South Staffordshire | | May 1833 | 14 November 1834 | Whig |
| | Sir Henry Hardinge MP for Launceston | | 16 December 1834 | 8 April 1835 | Conservative |
| | Viscount Morpeth MP for West Riding of Yorkshire | | 22 April 1835 | 30 August 1841 | Whig |
| | Lord Eliot MP for East Cornwall | | 6 February 1841 | 1 February 1845 | Conservative |
| | Sir Thomas Fremantle, Bt MP for Buckingham | | 1 February 1845 | 14 February 1846 | Conservative |
| | The Earl of Lincoln MP for Falkirk Burghs | | 14 February 1846 | June 1846 | Conservative |
| | Henry Labouchere MP for Taunton | | 6 July 1846 | 22 July 1847 | Whig |
| | Sir William Somerville, Bt MP for Drogheda | | 22 July 1847 | 21 February 1852 | Whig |
| 1852–1900 ||||||
| Name | Name | Portrait | Term of office | Term of office | Political party |
| | Lord Naas MP for Coleraine | | 1 March 1852 | 17 December 1852 | Conservative |
| | Sir John Young, Bt MP for Cavan | | 6 January 1853 | 30 January 1855 | Peelite |
| | Edward Horsman MP for Stroud | | 1 March 1855 | 27 May 1857 | Whig |
| | Henry Arthur Herbert MP for Kerry | | 27 May 1857 | 21 February 1858 | Whig |
| | Lord Naas MP for Cockermouth | | 4 March 1858 | 11 June 1859 | Conservative |
| | Edward Cardwell MP for Oxford | | 24 June 1859 | 29 July 1861 | Liberal |
| | Sir Robert Peel, Bt MP for Tamworth | | 29 July 1861 | 7 December 1865 | Liberal |
| | Chichester Parkinson-Fortescue MP for County Louth | | 7 December 1865 | 26 June 1866 | Liberal |
| | The Earl of Mayo MP for Cockermouth | | 10 July 1866 | 29 September 1868 | Conservative |
| | John Wilson-Patten MP for North Lancashire | | 29 September 1868 | 1 December 1868 | Conservative |
| | Chichester Parkinson-Fortescue MP for County Louth | | 16 December 1868 | 12 January 1871 | Liberal |
| | Marquess of Hartington MP for Radnor | | 12 January 1871 | 17 February 1874 | Liberal |
| | Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Bt MP for East Gloucestershire | | 27 February 1874 | 15 February 1878 | Conservative |
| | James Lowther MP for City of York | | 15 February 1878 | 21 April 1880 | Conservative |
| | William Edward Forster MP for Bradford | | 30 April 1880 | 6 May 1882 | Liberal |
| | Lord Frederick Cavendish MP for West Riding of Yorkshire North | | 6 May 1882 | 6 May 1882 | Liberal |
| | George Trevelyan MP for Hawick Burghs | | 9 May 1882 | 23 October 1884 | Liberal |
| | Henry Campbell-Bannerman MP for Stirling Burghs | | 23 October 1884 | 9 June 1885 | Liberal |
| | Sir William Hart Dyke, Bt MP for Mid Kent | | 25 June 1885 | 23 January 1886 | Conservative |
| | William Henry Smith MP for Strand | | 23 January 1886 | 28 January 1886 | Conservative |
| | John Morley MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne | | 6 February 1886 | 20 July 1886 | Liberal |
| | Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt MP for Bristol West | | 5 August 1886 | 7 March 1887 | Conservative |
| | Arthur Balfour MP for Manchester East | | 7 March 1887 | 9 November 1891 | Conservative |
| | William Jackson MP for Leeds North | | 9 November 1891 | 11 August 1892 | Conservative |
| | John Morley MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne | | 22 August 1892 | 21 June 1895 | Liberal |
| | Gerald Balfour MP for Leeds Central | | 1895 | 1900 | Conservative |
| 1900–1922 ||||||
| Name | Name | Portrait | Term of office | Term of office | Political party |
| | George Wyndham MP for Dover | | 9 November 1900 | 12 March 1905 | Conservative |
| | Walter Long MP for Bristol South | | 12 March 1905 | 4 December 1905 | Conservative |
| | James Bryce MP for Aberdeen South | | 10 December 1905 | 23 January 1907 | Liberal |
| | Augustine Birrell MP for Bristol North | | 23 January 1907 | 3 May 1916 | Liberal |
| | Henry Duke MP for Exeter | | 31 July 1916 | 5 May 1918 | Conservative |
| | Edward Shortt MP for Newcastle upon Tyne West | | 5 May 1918 | 10 January 1919 | Liberal |
| | Ian Macpherson MP for Ross and Cromarty | | 10 January 1919 | 2 April 1920 | Liberal |
| | Sir Hamar Greenwood, Bt MP for Sunderland | | 2 April 1920 | 19 October 1922 | Liberal |