City status in Ireland

It carried more prestige than the alternative municipal titles "borough", "town" and "township", but gave no extra legal powers.

Probably all or most of the places having bishops have been styled on some occasion civitas; but some of these are mere hamlets, and the term 'city' is currently applied only to a few of them which are ancient and important boroughs.

Thom's Directory applies it to Dublin, Cork, Derry, Limerick ('City of the violated treaty'), Kilkenny, and Waterford; also to Armagh and Cashel, but not to Tuam or Galway (though the latter is often called 'the City of the Tribes').

[26] For example, Dublin, long the metropolis of the island, has been called Baile Átha Cliath since the fifteenth century,[27] while its earliest city charter is from 1172.

In the Roman Empire, the Latin civitas referred originally to the jurisdiction of a capital town, typically the territory of a single conquered tribe.

William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England of 1765[30] cites Edward Coke's Institutes of the Lawes of England of 1634:[31] A city is a town incorporated, which is or hath been the see of a bishop; and though the bishoprick be dissolved, as at Westminster, yet still it remaineth a city.Subsequent legal authorities disputed this assertion; pointing out that the City of Westminster gained its status not implicitly from its (former) cathedral but explicitly from letters patent issued by Henry VIII shortly after the Diocese was established.

[39][40] The 1835 Report of the Commissioners on Municipal Corporations in Ireland questioned whether it was applicable in the case of Armagh and Tuam, both being episcopal sees and hence "cities" in Blackstone's definition.

For Cork,[43] Dublin,[44] Kilkenny,[45] Limerick,[46] Derry,[47] and Waterford,[48] the definition at the start of the relevant article includes "a city".

Armagh is defined as "[a] post, market, and ancient town, a royal borough, the capital of a county, and the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland"; however it is called a "city" throughout its article.

[55][56] Of Kilfenora it says, "It belongs to the same category as Emly, Clonfert, Kilmacduagh, Ardfert, Connor, Clogher, Kilmore, Ferns, and Achonry, in exhibiting a shrunk and ghastly caricature upon the practical notion of a 'city;' and nothing but its episcopal name and historical associations prevent it from being regarded as a mean and shabby hamlet.

'"[58] Of Downpatrick it says "it displays a striking, and almost outré combination of unique and common place character, of ancient piles and modern edifices curiously mingling the features of city and village, of political grandeur and social littleness.

A Question was lately put in the House upon the subject, and ... [ W. H. Smith] replied ... that the Government did not intend to recommend any such grant in connection with Her Majesty's Jubilee.

Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be able to say that, in consideration of the importance of the town, the Government will recommend the Crown to grant to it the title of city.

[68] The style "Right Honourable" was originally a consequence of the lord mayor's ex officio membership of the Privy Council of Ireland; it was later explicitly granted by the 1840 Act.

The Lord Mayor of Cork gained the title in 1900, to mark Queen Victoria's visit to Ireland;[70] the style "Right Honourable" has never applied.

In 1994, Charles, Prince of Wales announced that city status had been granted to mark the 1,550th anniversary of the traditional date of Armagh's foundation by Saint Patrick.

[17] Lisburn and Ballymena entered a UK-wide competition for city status held to mark the millennium in 2000; neither was selected, being below the unofficial 200,000 population threshold.

[81] The production by the Crown Office of the letters patent formally granting city status was delayed by the death of Elizabeth II.

[82] The revised document was issued on 22 November by the Clerk of the Crown for Northern Ireland under the royal sign manual of the new king, Charles III.

[83] It was formally presented at Bangor Castle on 2 December by Anne, Princess Royal to the Vice Lord Lieutenant of County Down, Catherine Champion, and the Mayor of Ards and North Down, Karen Douglas.

[83][84] Thus the recognised cities in Northern Ireland as of 16 November 2022[update] number five (Armagh, Belfast, Derry, Lisburn, Newry)[85][86] plus one announced for later in 2022 (Bangor).

[104] Waterford, Ireland's oldest city is believed to have been established by the Viking Ragnall (the grandson of Ivar the Boneless) in 914 AD.

[105] Its nickname was "the city of the Tribes" due to the fact that there were 14 main tribes there Athy, Blake, Bodkin, Browne, Darcy, Deane, French, Font, Joyce, Kirwan, Lynch, Martin, Morris, and Skerrett, families, but in British times it was legally a town, and its county corporate was the "county of the town of Galway".

[119] A proposal to merge Galway city and county was put on hold in 2018 after Seanad opposition, and has now been completely abandoned by the government.

[122] Accordingly, a clause was added to the bill:[123] This section is without prejudice to the continued use of the description city in relation to Kilkenny, to the extent that that description was used before the establishment day and is not otherwise inconsistent with this Act.The Act also states:[124] Subject to this Act, royal charters and letters patent relating to local authorities shall continue to apply for ceremonial and related purposes in accordance with local civic tradition but shall otherwise cease to have effect.Minister of State Tom Kitt explained these provisions as follows:[125] New provisions to recognise the term "city" to describe Kilkenny in line with long-established historical and municipal practice were brought in.

In view of these concerns, the Minister [ Noel Dempsey ] indicated that he would include a provision in the Bill to specifically recognise the traditional usage of the term "city" to describe Kilkenny.

The "Midlands Gateway", a polycentric zone based on Tullamore, Athlone, and Mullingar, has occasionally been described as constituting a new or future city.

"[136] The possibility of Drogheda gaining city status was raised in Dáil questions by Gay Mitchell in 2005,[137] Michael Noonan in 2007[136] and by Fergus O'Dowd in 2007[134] and 2010.

"[153] A campaign to have Tallaght given city status was launched in 2003 by Eamonn Maloney, a member of South Dublin County Council.

[154] Advantages envisaged by the campaign's website include having a dedicated Industrial Development Authority branch office for attracting investment, and facilitating the upgrade of Institute of Technology, Tallaght to university status.