**Exhibit 12.1****Sarbanes Oxley Act Section 302 Certification**I, **Brian J. Goggin**, certify that:1. I have reviewed this annual report on Form 20-F of The Governor and Company of the Bank ofIreland, a chartered corporation incorporated under the laws of Ireland (“Bank of Ireland”); 2. Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain any untrue statement of a material factor omit to state a material fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of thecircumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the periodcovered by this report; 3. Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information included inthis report, fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results ofoperations and cash flows of Bank of Ireland as of, and for, the periods presented in thisreport; 4. Bank of Ireland’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for establishing andmaintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and15d-15(e)) and internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules13a-15(f) and 15(d)-15(f)) for Bank of Ireland and have: (a) Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosurecontrols and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that materialinformation relating to Bank of Ireland, including its consolidated subsidiaries, ismade known to us by others within those entities, particularly during the period inwhich this report is being prepared;  (b) Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internalcontrol over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to providereasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and thepreparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generallyaccepted accounting principles;  (c) Evaluated the effectiveness of Bank of Ireland’s disclosure controls andprocedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the effectiveness of thedisclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this reportbased on such evaluation; and  (d) Disclosed in this report any change in Bank of Ireland’s internal control overfinancial reporting that occurred during the period covered by the annual report thathas materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, Bank of Ireland’sinternal control over financial reporting; and5. Bank of Ireland’s other certifying officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recentevaluation of internal control over financial reporting, to Bank of Ireland’s auditors and theAudit Committee of Bank of Ireland’s Court of Directors: (a) All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operationof internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to adverselyaffect Bank of Ireland’s ability to record, process, summarise and report financialinformation; and  (b) Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employeeswho have a significant role in Bank of Ireland’s internal control over financialreporting.       Date: July 24, 2007          /s/ Brian J. Goggin     Name: