Lords Justices of Ireland

In the 17th century, the King often left the chief governorship vacant for months or years and instead appointed multiple Lords Justices.

[8] Prior to 1767 the chief governor (now styled Lord Lieutenant or viceroy) was often absent in England unless the Parliament of Ireland was in session, typically eight months every two years.

[13] In 1868 it was ruled that a warrant signed in 1866 by only one of the three then Lords Justices was valid, because the patent appointing them allowed for this in case of absence "occasioned by sickness or any other necessary cause", and the cause did not have to be stated.

[14] After the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871, its prelates were no longer made Lords Justices, and usually only two were sworn in or the third was a second senior judge.

[16] While John Thomas Ball was serving as a Lord Justice, he seconded the nomination of Dodgson Hamilton Madden in the 1887 Dublin University by-election, which the Irish Parliamentary Party complained was inappropriate.

[18] It proved impossible to find three willing to serve; St John Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton was prepared to preside but demanded more control of policy than Lloyd George would cede.

The Irish Free State had no privy council: the Governor-General's default replacement would be the Chief Justice, but the sole suggestion of invoking this provision, at James McNeill's 1932 resignation, was not taken up.