Lord Chief Justice of Ireland

The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland was the senior Irish judge under English and British rule. The Annals of the Four Masters dates the appointment of a John, Bishop of Norwich, as Lord Justice over Ireland to 1208. The office under its full title was created during the Lordship of Ireland (1171-1536) and continued in existence under the Kingdom of Ireland (1536-1800) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Previously the presiding judge on the King's Bench of Common Pleas the Lord Chief Justice from the mid 1870s, when the courts system was restructured, presided over the High Court, the most senior of the Irish courts, which met in the Four Courts in Dublin.

With the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 the new government under W.T. Cosgrave set about restructuring the Irish judicial system. The two highest ranking judicial postings, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Lord Chief Justice were abolished, in 1922 and 1924 respectively. The Courts of Justice Act, 1924 created a new courts system, with a Supreme Court as the highest court. The president of the Supreme Court received the title Chief Justice.

Thomas Lefroy, later Lord Chief Justice of Ireland (LCJ 1852-1866), was used by Jane Austen as the model for her Pride and Prejudice character Mr. D'Arcy. Lefroy and Austen had had a romance in their youths. Other prominent Lord Chief Justices of Ireland include Lord Whiteside (LCJ 1866-1876), who as a Queen's Counsel had defended Irish nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell in court, Gearoid Iarla Fitzgerald, (the Third Earl of Desmond), Hugh de Lacy, Richard Tuite, John Dougherty and Thomas Marley, James Ley and Peter O'Brien. James Henry Mussen Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy (LCJ 1916-1918, later Chairman of Seanad Éireann and father of the satirist Patrick Campbell). One Lord Chief Justice, Lord Kilwarden, was killed by a crowd during Robert Emmet's 1803 rebellion. The final Lord Chief Justice of Ireland was Thomas F. Moloney.

External links

• Gearoid Iarla Fitzgerald, Third Earl of Desmond, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1367

• Lord Chief Justice O'Brien anecdotes

• Tim Healy, MP, QC's anecdotes about Lord Justice O'Brien

• Order of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State concerning the substitution of 'Saorstát Éireann' for 'Southern Ireland'

• Text about Sir Richard Cox, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland

• 'Ireland's Millennia: RTÉ biography of James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy, LCJ 1916-1918

• Part of the process of changing laws to replace 'Lord Chief Justice of Ireland' with 'Chief Justice of Ireland'