The peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Originally an element in the constitution of Ireland, with peers holding seats in the Irish House of Lords, it is now seen as one of the peerages in the United Kingdom. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century.
The ranks of the Irish peerage are duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. As of 2016, there were 135 extant peerages in the peerage of Ireland: two dukedoms, ten marquessates, 43 earldoms, 28 viscountcies, and 52 baronies.
The United Kingdom now includes only part of the island of Ireland, namely Northern Ireland, and Irish titles are not officially recognised by the Republic of Ireland, with Article 40.2 of the Constitution of Ireland forbidding the state conferring titles of nobility and stating that an Irish citizen may not accept titles of nobility or honour except with the prior approval of the Irish government.
In the following table, each peer is listed only by his highest Irish title, showing higher or equal titles in the other peerages. Those peers who are known by a higher title in one of the other peerages are listed in italics.
History
Relatively few titles in the peerage of Ireland date from the Middle Ages. Before 1801, Irish peers had the right to sit in the Irish House of Lords, on the abolition of which by the Union effective in 1801 by an Act of 1800 they elected a small proportion – twenty-eight Irish representative peers – of their number (and elected replacements as they died) to the House of Lords at Westminster.
Both before and after the Union, Irish peerages were often used as a way of creating peerages which did not grant a seat in the House of Lords of England (before 1707) or Great Britain (after 1707) and so allowed the grantee (such as Clive of India) to sit in the House of Commons in London. As a consequence, many late-made Irish peers had little or no connection to Ireland, and indeed the names of some Irish peerages refer to places in Great Britain (for example, the Earldom of Mexborough refers to a place in England and the Earldom of Ranfurly refers to a village in Scotland). Even after the Union, Irish peers could not represent seats in Ireland in the Commons, but if not representative peers then they could be elected in Great Britain: when Castlereagh inherited the Marquisate of Londonderry in 1821, he automatically ceased being MP for Down in Ireland but was then elected in Orford in England.
Irish peerages continued to be created for almost a century after the union, although the treaty of union placed restrictions on their numbers: three needed to become extinct before a new peerage could be granted, until there were only one hundred Irish peers (exclusive of those who held any peerage of Great Britain subsisting at the time of the union, or of the United Kingdom created since the union). There was a spate of creations of Irish peerages from 1797 onward, mostly peerages of higher ranks for existing Irish peers, as part of the negotiation of the Act of Union; this ended in the first week of January 1801, but the restrictions of the Act were not applied to the last few peers. In the following decades, Irish peerages were created at least as often as the Act permitted until at least 1856.According to , there was a dispute in 1855/56 as to whether the government had created the barony of Fermoy prematurely, before three further peerages had become extinct. But the pace then slowed, with only four more being created in the rest of the 19th century, and none in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The last two grants of Irish peerages were the promotion of the Marquess of Abercorn (a peerage of Great Britain) to be Duke of Abercorn in the Irish Peerage when he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1868 and the granting of the Curzon of Kedleston barony to George Curzon when he became Viceroy of India in 1898. Peers of Ireland have precedence below peers of England, Scotland, and Great Britain of the same rank, and above peers of the United Kingdom of the same rank; but Irish peers created after 1801 yield to United Kingdom peers of earlier creation. Accordingly, the Duke of Abercorn (the junior duke in the Peerage of Ireland) ranks between the Duke of Sutherland and the Duke of Westminster (both dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom).
When one of the Irish representative peers died, the Irish Peerage met to elect his replacement; but the offices required to arrange this were abolished as part of the creation of the Irish Free State. The existing representative peers kept their seats in the House of Lords, but they have not been replaced. Since the death of the 4th Earl of Kilmorey in 1961, none remains. The right of the Irish Peerage to elect representatives was abolished by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971.
Titles in the Peerage of the United Kingdom have also referred to places in Ireland, for example Baron Arklow (created 1801 and 1881) and Baron Killarney (created 1892 and 1920). Since partition, only places in Northern Ireland have been used, although the 1880 title "Baron Mount Temple, of Mount Temple in the County of Sligo", was recreated in 1932 as "Baron Mount Temple, of Lee in the County of Southampton".
Ranks In the following table of the Peerage of Ireland as it currently stands, each peer's highest titles in each of the other peerages (if any) are also listed.
Irish peers possessed of titles in any of the other peerages (except Scotland, which only got the right to an automatic seat in 1963, with the Peerage Act 1963) had automatic seats in the House of Lords until 1999.
The Earl of Darnley inherited the Baron Clifton (England) in 1722–1900 and 1937–1999 as the barony is in writ.
CountryPeerageYearsEngland1066–1707Scotlandc. 1140–1707Irelandc. 1170–1922Great Britain1707–1801United Kingdom1801–present
Dukes in the Peerage of Ireland
ShieldTitleCreationOther Dukedom or higher titlesHouse of Lords titlesMonarchThe Duke of Leinster26 November 1766 Viscount Leinster1747–1999King George III Baron Kildare1870–1999The Duke of Abercorn10 August 1868 Marquess of Abercorn1790–1999Queen Victoria Viscount Hamilton1786–1999
Marquesses in the Peerage of Ireland
ShieldTitleCreationOther Marquessate or higher titlesHouse of Lords titlesMonarchThe Marquess of Kildare3 March 1761Duke of Leinster (Ireland)King George IIIThe Marquess of Waterford19 August 1789 Baron Tyrone1786–1999The Marquess of DownshireThe Marquess is the Hereditary Constable of Hillsborough Fort20 August 1789 Earl of Hillsborough1772–1999 Baron Harwich1756–1999 Baron SandysSince 2013The Marquess of DonegallThe Marquess is the Hereditary Lord High Admiral of Lough Neagh and Hereditary Governor of Carrickfergus Castle4 July 1791 Baron Fisherwick1790–1999 Baron Templemore1975–1999The Marquess of Headfort29 December 1800 Baron Kenlis1831–1999The Marquess of Sligo29 December 1800 Baron Monteagle1806–1999The Marquess of Ely29 December 1800 Baron Loftus1801–1999The Marquess Conyngham1 January 1816 Baron Minster1821–1999The Prince Regent on behalf of King George IIIThe Marquess of Londonderry13 January 1816 Earl Vane1823–1999 Baron Stewart1814–1999
Earls in the Peerage of Ireland
ShieldTitleCreationOther Earldom or higher titlesHouse of Lords titlesMonarchThe Earl of Kildare14 May 1316Duke of Leinster (Ireland)King Edward IIThe Earl of Waterford17 July 1446Earl of Shrewsbury (England)King Henry VIThe Earl of Cork26 October 1620——King James IThe Earl of Westmeath4 September 1621——The Earl of Desmond22 November 1622Held by the Earl of Denbigh (England) since 1675.The Earl of Meath16 April 1627 Baron Chaworth1831–1999King Charles IThe Earl of Donegall30 March 1647Marquess of Donegall (Ireland)The Earl of Cavan15 April 1647——The Earl of Orrery5 September 1660Held with Earl of Cork (Ireland) since 1753.King Charles II Baron Boyle of Marston1711–1999The Earl of Drogheda14 June 1661 Baron Moore1954–1999The Earl of Granard30 December 1684 Baron Granard1806–1999The Earl of Kerry17 January 1723Marquess of Lansdowne (Great Britain)King George IIThe Earl of Darnley29 June 1725 Baron Clifton1937–1999The Earl of Bessborough6 October 1739 Baron Ponsonby1749–1999 Baron Duncannon1834–1999The Earl of Tyrone18 July 1746Marquess of Waterford (Ireland)The Earl of Carrick10 June 1748 Baron Butler1912–1999The Earl of Hillsborough6 October 1751Marquess of Downshire (Ireland)The Earl of Shelburne6 June 1753Marquess of Lansdowne (Great Britain)The Earl of Shannon17 April 1756 Baron Carleton1786–1999The Earl of Mornington2 October 1760Duke of Wellington (United Kingdom)The Earl of Arran12 April 1762 Baron Sudley1884–1999King George IIIThe Earl of Courtown12 April 1762 Baron Saltersford1796–1999The Earl of Mexborough11 February 1766——The Earl Winterton12 February 1766——The Earl of Bective24 October 1766Marquess of Headfort (Ireland)The Earl of Kingston25 August 1768——The Earl of Roden1 December 1771——The Earl of Altamont4 December 1771Marquess of Sligo (Ireland)The Earl of Clanwilliam20 January 1776 Baron Clanwilliam1828–1999The Earl of Lisburne24 June 1776——The Earl of Antrim19 June 1785——The Earl of Longford20 June 1785 Baron Silchester1821–1999 Baron Pakenham1945–1999The Earl of Portarlington21 June 1785——The Earl of Mayo24 June 1785——The Earl Annesley7 August 1789——The Earl of Enniskillen18 August 1789 Baron Grinstead1815–1999The Earl Erne19 August 1789 Baron Fermanagh1876–1999The Earl of Ely2 March 1794Marquess of Ely (Ireland)The Earl of Lucan1 October 1795 Baron Bingham1934–1974/1999The Earl of Londonderry8 August 1796Marquess of Londonderry (Ireland)The Earl Conyngham5 November 1797Marquess Conyngham (Ireland)The Earl Belmore20 November 1797——The Earl of Caledon29 December 1800——The Earl Castle Stewart29 December 1800——The Earl of Clanricarde29 December 1800Marquess of Sligo (Ireland)The Earl of Donoughmore29 December 1800 Viscount Hutchinson1821–1999The Earl of Limerick1 January 1803 Baron Worlingham1815–1999King George IIIThe Earl of Clancarty11 February 1803 Viscount Clancarty1823–1999 Baron Trench1815–1999The Earl of Gosford1 February 1806 Baron Worlingham1835–1999 Baron Acheson1847–1999The Earl of Rosse3 February 1806—The Earl of Normanton6 February 1806 Baron Mendip1974–1999 Baron Somerton1873–1999The Earl of Kilmorey5 February 1822——King George IVThe Earl of Listowel5 February 1822 Baron Hare1869–1999The Earl of Norbury23 June 1827—The Earl of Ranfurly14 September 1831 Baron Ranfurly1826–1999King William IV
Viscounts in the Peerage of Ireland