| Buanchomhairle Thaoisigh Éireann | |
| Formation | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Type | Gaelic nobility Irish clans Gaelic culture |
| Headquarters | Ireland |
TheStanding Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains (Irish:Buanchomhairle Thaoisigh Éireann) is an organisation which was established to bring together claimants to be survivingChiefs of the Name from theGaelic nobility of Ireland.
As arepublic, theConstitution of Ireland prohibits the conferral of "titles of nobility" by theRepublic of Ireland, or their acceptance without permission of the Government;[1] further, Irish chieftainships did not descend by primogeniture but by election from within kinship pools.[2]
On 5 October 1991, sixteen of the nineteen claimant "bloodline chiefs" were received atÁras an Uachtaráin by thePresident of Ireland,Mary Robinson,[3] along with theChief Herald of Ireland and representation from theIrish Tourist Board.[4]
Maguire of Fermanagh, retired accountant Terence Maguire, was elected chairman of the first council,[3] while theO'Conor Don ofRoscommon, retired businessmanDenis O'Conor Don, was elected deputy-chairman.[citation needed]
Followinga scandal in 1999, the Chief Herald of Ireland took advice from the Attorney General's Office that successions would no longer be given "courtesy recognition" or published in theIris Oifigiúil. While some representatives had obtained courtesy recognition asChiefs of the Name from theChief Herald of Ireland, this practice was discontinued by 2003 – when the Attorney General noted that such recognitions in aRepublican system wereunconstitutional and without basis inIrish law.[5][6][7]
As of 2006,[needs update] thechair of the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains was Dr. Hugo Ricciardi O'Neill, the ostensible head of theClandeboyeO'Neill dynasty, from a branch of that family which has been inPortugal since the 18th century.[8]
The council issues an annual prize, for essay writing, in association withTrinity College Dublin.[9][10]
International law clearly states that no successor state, such as a republic like Ireland, can retrospectively change the dynastic laws of succession practised in a predecessor state such as the Gaelic kingdoms of Ireland which finally disappeared in 1603. Gaelic titles can only descend by Gaelic law succession.
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