Privy Council of Northern Ireland

The failure of Southern Ireland in the face of militant republican opposition led to its replacement by the Irish Free State in 1922.

[5] The Governor's throne speech was formally ordered to be presented to Parliament by members of the Commons and Senate who were Privy Councillors.

[10] Lords Justices for the government of Northern Ireland, deputising in the absence of the Governor, were sworn at a meeting of the council.

[14] The Privy Council of Northern Ireland was not abolished, but new appointments were prohibited,[15] and all of its functions were transferred to the Secretary of State.

[21] John Andrew Oliver suggested in 1978 that any revival should be a "Governor’s Council" with "a wider membership and a door much more open to publicity", including more Catholic/nationalists.

In 1970, the Northern Ireland Nationalist Party submitted to the Royal Commission on the Constitution, "Not since [Denis Henry] the Catholic Lord Chief Justice died in 1925 has there been a Catholic member af the Privy Council of Northern Ireland which ostensibly is a non-partisan, non-political body advising the Governor in the interests of all the people.

[25] Newe's was not a cabinet ministry and did not require him to be a Privy Counsellor, but both appointments were intended by Brian Faulkner as a conciliatory gesture to Catholics.