Peerage of Ireland

For other uses, see Irish nobility.

The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount and Baron. The Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland continues to exercise jurisdiction over the Peerage of Ireland, including those peers whose titles derive from places located in what is now the Republic of Ireland. However Article 40.2 of the Irish Constitution forbids the state conferring titles of nobility and a citizen may not accept titles of nobility or honour except with the prior approval of the Government.

History

William FitzGerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster.

A handful of titles in the peerage of Ireland date from the Middle Ages. Before 1801, Irish peers were those who had the right to sit in the Irish House of Lords, but after the Union in 1801, they elected just twenty-eight representative peers to the House of Lords at Westminster.

Both before and after the Union, Irish peerages were often used as a way of creating peerages which did not grant a seat in the English House of Lords and so allowed the grantee (such as Clive of India) to sit in the House of Commons in London. As a consequence, many Irish peers had little or no connection to Ireland, and indeed the names of some Irish peerages refer to places in Great Britain (for example, the Earldom of Mexborough refers to a place in England and the Ranfurly refers to a village in Scotland). Irish peerages continued to be created for almost a century after the Union, although the treaty of Union placed restrictions on their numbers: three needed to become extinct before a new peerage could be granted, until there were only 100 Irish peers – a condition still not achieved. There was a spate of creations of Irish peerages from 1797 onward, mostly peerages of higher ranks for existing Irish peers, as part of the negotiation of the Act of Union; this ended in the first week of January 1801, but the restrictions of the Act were not applied to the last few peers. Irish peerages were created in the early nineteenth century at least as often as the Act permitted, but the pace then slowed.

The last two individuals to be granted Irish peerages were the promotion of the Marquess of Abercorn (a peerage of Great Britain) to be Duke of Abercorn in the Irish Peerage when he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1868, and the granting of the Curzon of Kedleston barony to George Curzon when he became Viceroy of India in 1898. Peers of Ireland have precedence below peers of England, Scotland, and Great Britain of the same rank, and above peers of the United Kingdom of the same rank; but Irish peers created after 1801 yield to United Kingdom peers of earlier creation. Accordingly, the Duke of Abercorn (the junior Duke in the Peerage of Ireland) ranks between the Duke of Sutherland and the Duke of Westminster (both dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom).

When one of the Irish representative peers died, the Irish Peerage met to elect his replacement; but the officers required to arrange this were abolished as part of the creation of the Irish Free State. The existing representative peers kept their seats in the House of Lords, but they have not been replaced. Since the death of Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey in 1961, none remains. The right of the Irish Peerage to elect Representatives was abolished by statute in 1971.

Extant Irish peerages

In the following table of the Peerage of Ireland as it currently stands, each peer's highest titles in each of the other Peerages (if any) are also listed. Irish peers possessed of titles in any of the other Peerages (except Scotland, which only got the right to an automatic seat in 1963, with the Peerage Act 1963) had automatic seats in the House of Lords until 1999.

Dukes

Title	Creation	Other titles
The Duke of Leinster	1766	Viscount Leinster in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Kildare in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
The Duke of Abercorn	1868	Earl of Abercorn in the Peerage of Scotland Marquess of Abercorn in the Peerage of Great Britain

Marquesses

Title	Creation	Other titles
The Marquess of Ormond	1816
The Marquess of Waterford	1789	Baron Tyrone in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Marquess of Downshire	1789	Earl of Hillsborough in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Marquess of Donegall	1791	Lord Fisherwick in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Templemore in the Peerage of the UK
The Marquess of Headfort	1800	Lord Kenlis in the Peerage of the UK
The Marquess of Sligo	1800	Lord Monteagle in the Peerage of the UK
The Marquess of Ely	1801	Lord Loftus in the Peerage of the UK
The Marquess Conyngham	1816	Lord Minster in the Peerage of the UK
The Marquess of Londonderry	1816	Earl Vane in the Peerage of the UK

Earls

Title	Creation	Other titles; Notes
The Earl Annesley	1789
The Earl of Antrim	1785
The Earl of Arran	1762	Lord Sudley in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Bessborough	1739	Lord Ponsonby in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Duncannon in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Carrick	1748	Lord Butler in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Cavan	1647
The Earl of Clanwilliam	1776	Lord Clanwilliam in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Cork and Orrery	1620; 1660	Lord Boyle of Marston in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Earl of Courtown	1762	Lord Saltersford in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Earl of Darnley	1725	Lord Clifton in the Peerage of England
The Earl of Desmond	1628	Earl of Denbigh in the Peerage of England
The Earl of Drogheda	1661	Lord Moore in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Enniskillen	1789	Lord Grinstead in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl Erne	1789	Lord Fermanagh in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Granard	1684	Lord Granard in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Kerry and Shelburne	1722; 1753	Marquess of Lansdowne in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Earl of Kingston	1768
The Earl of Lisburne	1776
The Earl of Longford	1785	Lord Silchester and Pakenham in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Lucan	1795	Lord Bingham in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Meath	1627	Lord Chaworth in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Mexborough	1766
The Earl of Mornington	1760	Duke of Wellington in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Portarlington	1785
The Earl of Roden	1771
The Earl of Shannon	1756	Lord Carleton in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Earl of Mayo	1785
The Earl Belmore	1797
The Earl Castle Stewart	1800
The Earl of Donoughmore	1800	Viscount Hutchinson in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Caledon	1800
The Earl of Limerick	1803	Lord Foxford in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Clancarty	1803	Viscount Clancarty in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Gosford	1806	Lord Worlingham and Acheson in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Rosse	1806
The Earl of Normanton	1806	Lord Mendip in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Somerton in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Kilmorey	1822
The Earl of Listowel	1822	Lord Hare in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Norbury	1827
The Earl of Ranfurly	1831	Lord Ranfurly in the Peerage of the UK
The Earl of Waterford	1446	Earl of Shrewsbury in the Peerage of England
The Earl of Westmeath	1621
The Earl Winterton	1766

Viscounts

Title	Creation	Other titles
The Viscount Gormanston	1478	Lord Gormanston in the Peerage of the UK
The Viscount Mountgarret	1550	Lord Mountgarret in the Peerage of the UK
The Viscount Grandison	1620	Earl of Jersey in the Peerage of England
The Viscount Valentia	1622
The Viscount Dillon	1622
The Viscount Lumley	1628	Earl of Scarbrough in the Peerage of England
The Viscount Massereene and Ferrard	1660; 1797	Lord Oriel in the Peerage of the UK
The Viscount Cholmondeley	1661	Earl of Cholmondeley in the Peerage of England Lord Newburgh in the Peerage of Great Britain Marquess of Cholmondeley in the Peerage of the UK
The Viscount Charlemont	1665
The Viscount Downe	1681	Lord Dawnay in the Peerage of the UK
The Viscount Molesworth	1716
The Viscount Chetwynd	1717
The Viscount Midleton	1717	Lord Brodrick in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Viscount Boyne	1717	Lord Brancepeth in the Peerage of the UK
The Viscount Grimston	1719	Lord Forrester in the Peerage of Scotland Lord Verulam in the Peerage of Great Britain Earl of Verulam in the Peerage of the UK
The Viscount Gage	1720	Lord Gage in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Viscount Galway	1727
The Viscount Powerscourt	1743	Lord Powerscourt in the Peerage of the UK
The Viscount Ashbrook	1751
The Viscount Southwell	1776
The Viscount de Vesci	1776
The Viscount Lifford	1781
The Viscount Bangor	1781
The Viscount Doneraile	1785
The Viscount Harberton	1791
The Viscount Hawarden	1793
The Viscount Monck	1801	Lord Monck in the Peerage of the UK
The Viscount Gort	1816

Barons

In Ireland, barony may also refer to an obsolete political subdivision of a county. There is no connection between such a barony and the noble title of baron.

Title	Creation	Other titles
The Lord Kingsale	1397
The Lord Dunsany	1439
The Lord Trimlestown	1461
The Lord Dunboyne	1541
The Lord Louth	1541
The Lord Inchiquin	1543
The Lord Digby	1620	Lord Digby in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Lord Conway and Killultagh	1712	Lord Conway in the Peerage of England Marquess of Hertford in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Lord Newborough	1715	Marquess of Cholmondeley in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Carbery	1715
The Lord Aylmer	1718
The Lord Farnham	1756
The Lord Lisle	1758
The Lord Clive	1762	Lord Clive in the Peerage of Great Britain Earl of Powis in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Westcote	1776	Viscount Cobham in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Lord Macdonald	1776
The Lord Kensington	1776	Lord Kensington in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Newborough	1776
The Lord Massy	1776
The Lord Muskerry	1781
The Lord Hood	1782	Viscount Hood in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Lord Sheffield	1783	Lord Stanley of Alderley and Eddisbury in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Kilmaine	1789
The Lord Auckland	1789	Lord Auckland in the Peerage of Great Britain
The Lord Waterpark	1792
The Lord Bridport	1794	Viscount Bridport in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Graves	1794
The Lord Huntingfield	1796
The Lord Carrington	1796	Lord Carrington in the Peerage of Great Britain Lord Carington of Upton in the Peerage of the UK for life
The Lord Rossmore	1796	Lord Rossmore in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Hotham	1797
The Lord Crofton	1797
The Lord ffrench	1798
The Lord Henley	1799	Lord Northington in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Langford	1800
The Lord Henniker	1800	Lord Hartismere in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Dufferin and Claneboye	1800
The Lord Ventry	1800
The Lord Dunalley	1800
The Lord Clanmorris	1800
The Lord Ashtown	1800
The Lord Rendlesham	1806
The Lord Castlemaine	1812
The Lord Decies	1812
The Lord Garvagh	1818
The Lord Talbot of Malahide	1831
The Lord Carew	1834	Lord Carew in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Oranmore and Browne	1836	Lord Mereworth in the Peerage of the UK
The Lord Bellew	1848
The Lord Fermoy	1865
The Lord Rathdonnell	1868

See also

• List of Irish representative peers
• Irish nobility, which distinguishes three groups of Irish nobility, the other two being:
  • Gaelic nobility of Ireland
  • Hiberno-Normans