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Thepeerage of Ireland consists of thosetitles of nobility created by theEnglish monarchs in their capacity asLord orKing of Ireland, or later by monarchs of theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.[note 1] It is one of the five divisions ofpeerages in the United Kingdom. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage areduke,marquess,earl,viscount andbaron. As of 2016, there were 135 titles in the peerage of Ireland: two dukedoms, ten marquessates, 43 earldoms, 28 viscountcies, and 52 baronies.
This peerage is administered[clarification needed] by the United Kingdom (which includes only part of the island of Ireland, namelyNorthern Ireland) and its titles are not officially recognised by theRepublic of Ireland (which consists of the rest of the island), with Article 40.2 of theConstitution of Ireland forbidding the state conferring titles of nobility and stating that an Irishcitizen may not accept titles of nobility or honour except with the prior approval of the Irish government.[1]
In the following table, each peer is listed only by his highest Irish title, showing higher or equal titles in the other peerages. Those peers who are known by a higher title in one of the other peerages are listed initalics.
A modest number of titles in the peerage of Ireland date from theMiddle Ages. Before 1801, Irish peers had the right to sit in theIrish House of Lords, on the abolition of which by theUnion effective in 1801 by an Act of 1800 they elected a small proportion – twenty-eightIrish representative peers – of their number (and elected replacements as they died) to theHouse of Lords atWestminster.
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 House of Lords of England (before 1707) or Great Britain (after 1707) and so allowed the grantee (such asClive of India) to sit in theHouse of Commons in London. As a consequence, many late-made 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, theEarldom of Mexborough refers to a place in England and theEarldom of 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 one hundred Irish peers (exclusive of those who held any peerage of Great Britain subsisting at the time of the union, or of the United Kingdom created since the union). 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. In the following decades, Irish peerages were created at least as often as the Act permitted until at least 1856.[2] But the pace then slowed, with only four more being created in the rest of the 19th century, and none in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The last two grants of Irish peerages were the promotion of the Marquess of Abercorn (a peerage of Great Britain) to beDuke of Abercorn in the Irish Peerage when he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1868 and the granting of theCurzon of Kedleston barony toGeorge 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 theDuke of Sutherland and theDuke of Westminster (both dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom).
When one of theIrish representative peers died, the Irish Peerage met to elect his replacement; but the offices required to arrange this were abolished as part of the creation of theIrish Free State. The existing representative peers kept their seats in the House of Lords, but they have not been replaced. Since the death of the4th Earl of Kilmorey in 1961, none remains. The right of the Irish Peerage to elect representatives was abolished by theStatute Law (Repeals) Act 1971.
Titles in thePeerage of the United Kingdom have also referred to places in Ireland, for exampleBaron Arklow (created 1801 and 1881) andBaron Killarney (created 1892 and 1920). Since partition, only places inNorthern Ireland have been used, although the 1880 title "Baron Mount Temple, of Mount Temple in the County of Sligo", was recreated in 1932 as "Baron Mount Temple, of Lee in the County of Southampton".
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 thePeerage Act 1963) had automatic seats in the House of Lords until 1999.
TheEarl of Darnley inherited theBaron Clifton in thePeerage of England in 1722–1900 and 1937–1999 as thebarony is in writ.
| Country | Peerage | Years |
|---|---|---|
 England | England | 1066–1707 |
 Scotland | Scotland | c. 1140–1707 |
 Ireland | Ireland | c. 1170–1922 |
 Great Britain | Great Britain | 1707–1801 |
 United Kingdom | United Kingdom | 1801–present |
| Shield | Title | Creation | Other Dukedom or higher titles House of Lords titles | Monarch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingdom of Ireland | |||||
 | TheDuke of Leinster | 26 November 1766 | Viscount Leinster | 1747–1999 | King George III |
| Baron Kildare | 1870–1999 | ||||
| United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | |||||
 | TheDuke of Abercorn | 10 August 1868 | Marquess of Abercorn | 1790–1999 | Queen Victoria |
| Viscount Hamilton | 1786–1999 | ||||
| Shield | Title | Creation | Other Marquessate or higher titles House of Lords titles | Monarch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingdom of Ireland | |||||
 | TheMarquess of Kildare | 3 March 1761 | Duke of Leinster in Peerage of Ireland. | King George III | |
 | TheMarquess of Waterford | 19 August 1789 | Baron Tyrone | 1786–1999 | |
 | TheMarquess of Downshire[3] | 20 August 1789 | Earl of Hillsborough | 1772–1999 | |
| Baron Harwich | 1756–1999 | ||||
| Baron Sandys | Since 2013 | ||||
 | TheMarquess of Donegall[4] | 4 July 1791 | Baron Fisherwick | 1790–1999 | |
| Baron Templemore | 1975–1999 | ||||
.svg) | TheMarquess of Headfort | 29 December 1800 | Baron Kenlis | 1831–1999 | |
 | TheMarquess of Sligo | 29 December 1800 | Baron Monteagle | 1806–1999 | |
.svg) | TheMarquess of Ely | 29 December 1800 | Baron Loftus | 1801–1999 | |
| United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | |||||
 | TheMarquess Conyngham | 1 January 1816 | Baron Minster | 1821–1999 | The Prince Regent on behalf ofKing George III |
 | TheMarquess of Londonderry | 13 January 1816 | Earl Vane | 1823–1999 | |
| Baron Stewart | 1814–1999 | ||||
In Ireland,barony may also refer to a semi-obsolete political subdivision of acounty. There is no connection between such a barony and the noble title of baron.
Two Irish earldoms have become extinct since the passage of theHouse of Lords Act 1999, both in 2011:
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