Theologically and politically conservative, as shown in his writings, he was generous with the considerable riches that he acquired during his career, making large donations to support education and relieve poverty in his home town.

In 1831, as Ireland was "a distinguished Benefactor of the University", Oxford had sought and obtained his permission to put on display a marble bust of him by the sculptor Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey.

After obtaining his first degree, he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England, and was a curate near his home town for a time, before travelling abroad with the son of Sir James Wright, 1st Baronet, acting as the boy's tutor.

[2] As well as ministering in Croydon, he was chaplain to the statesman Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool, who used his influence to have Ireland appointed as a prebend of Westminster Abbey in 1802.

Ireland rose to become subdean in 1806, and was additionally appointed as the Abbey's theological lecturer – the post dated from the time of Queen Elizabeth I, but had fallen into disuse.

At his death, he left more than £20,000 (over £2.38 million as of 2025)[3]; £10,000 went to the University of Oxford to establish the post of Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, and a further £2,000 went to Oriel College.

On political and religious topics, his works included Vindicae regiae, or, A Defence of the Kingly Office (1797); Letters of Fabius (1801), opposing repeal of the Test Act in relation to Irish Roman Catholics; and The Claims of the Establishment (1807), a sermon on the levels of tolerance and civil rights to be afforded to those who departed from traditional Anglican doctrines.

[2] One historian of the abbey has said that Ireland was "essentially an eighteenth-century clergyman who lived long enough to feel the winds of change blowing around him".