Ireland has no formal honours system. Proposals to introduce one have been made by various groups at different times. The Order of St. Patrick, established by the British monarchy in the Kingdom of Ireland in 1783, has been in abeyance for decades. The Constitution of Ireland mandates that "Titles of nobility shall not be conferred by the State", and honours are not issued directly by the Government of Ireland.

As with military and police forces in other jurisdictions, medals and decorations are issued by the Irish Defence Forces and Garda Síochána, including for distinguished service, operational service, long service, and commemorative purposes. Service and commemorative medals are also issued by civilian and volunteer groups.

History Debates and proposals Up to independence

Irish republicans were opposed to the British honours system from both Irish nationalist antipathy to its Britishness and republican opposition to its monarchist underpinnings. The Act of Union 1800's passage through the Parliament of Ireland was, notoriously, helped by the offer to legislators of British and Irish peerages and other honours; the 1783 introduction of the Order of St. Patrick was a similar source of patronage and compliance.

Article 5 of the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State read: No title of honour in respect of any services rendered in or in relation to the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) may be conferred on any citizen of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) except with the approval or upon the advice of the Executive Council of the State.

The original draft prepared for the Provisional Government had stated more baldly, "No title of honour may be conferred by the State on any citizen of Saorstát Éireann", but the British insisted on adding the exception in order to preserve a theoretical royal prerogative. Geoffrey Browne, 3rd Baron Oranmore and Browne felt that even the revised wording "ought not to have been considered by either House [at Westminster] until a gracious Message had been received from the Sovereign stating that he placed at the disposal of the House his rights with respect to the conferring of honours".

In addition to a ban on new titles, the drafting committee had envisaged a phasing-out of existing peerage titles, but the Provisional Government removed that to conciliate southern unionists such as Lord Midleton. In the debate on Article 5 in the Third Dáil/Provisional Parliament,Dáil 25 September 1922 p.12 Darrell Figgis proposed an absolute prohibition, alluding to the contemporary scandal surrounding the sale of British peerages. Kevin O'Higgins countered: You cannot set down, I submit, having regard to the exact position under the Treaty statement, a prohibition on the British King from conferring honours in this country, but they have conceded that they will not confer except upon the advice and with the consent of the Executive Council, which in practice can be made equivalent to a complete prohibition[.]

Irish Free State

The Free State was established on 6 December 1922 as a Dominion, with a Governor-General representing the British king in his capacity as Free State monarch. Article 5 of the Constitution was called into question when The London Gazette list of the UK's 1925 New Year Honours included "Thomas Francis Molony formerly Lord Chief Justice of Ireland" and "James O'Connor, formerly a Lord Justice of Appeal in Ireland", positions they held until abolished in 1924. In answer to a parliamentary question, W. T. Cosgrave said their honours were "not conferred in respect of services rendered in or in relation to Saorstát Eireann".Dáil 3 February 1925 v10 p2 c1

In December 1929, Ernest Blythe proposed establishing a "Legion of Saint Patrick", with Members, Officers, and Commanders. The Legion's establishment and constituent Statutes would be made by the King under letters patent; the Governor-General would be Head of the Legion during his term of office and a Commander thereafter. The investiture of new members with the Cross of the Legion would occur annually on 6 December. In July 1930 the Cumann na nGaedheal government considered draft letters patent drawn up by the Department of External Affairs and agreed to make informal talks with the British Government; no further action ensued.

The 1932 general election returned a Fianna Fáil government "strongly opposed to the establishment of any decoration or order". Before the 1932 Eucharistic Congress opened in Dublin, Charles Bewley, Irish ambassador to the Holy See, warned that offence would be taken if no honour were conferred on the papal legate who would open the conference, Lorenzo Lauri. The government did not alter its policy, although its overall support for the Congress satisfied the Vatican.

Order of St Patrick Between April 1924 and December 1926 seven knights of the Order of St. Patrick died. The British government felt obliged, before filling the accrued vacancies, to consult the Free State's Executive Council. Bernard Forbes, 8th Earl of Granard, a member of both the Order and the Free State Senate, raised the matter, and John A. Costello, the Attorney-General, advised the Executive Council that in light of the 1926 Imperial Conference the Order was an Irish competence; in 1928 the Council decided "that the Order, being now moribund, should be allowed completely to disappear". While monarchs continued to appoint members of the British royal family to the Order in the 1930s, no other appointments were made, and the last Knight died in 1974. Éamon de Valera and Seán Lemass both considered reviving the Order, with Lemass allowing Brian Lenihan to float the idea in 1960, although Fine Gael was opposed. After the Northern Ireland peace process and the Belfast Agreement, media reported suggestions that the Order be awarded jointly by the President of Ireland and the British monarch in recognition of work to improve British–Irish relations. This received support from journalists Jim Duffy and Mary Kenny.

1937 Constitution

Article 40, section 2 of the Constitution states in full:

1° Titles of nobility shall not be conferred by the State.

2° No title of nobility or of honour may be accepted by any citizen except with the prior approval of the Government. The draft Constitution introduced to the Dáil in 1937 originally included a second sentence in subsection 1°: 1° Titles of nobility shall not be conferred by the State. Orders of Merit may, however be created. In the committee stage, the whole of section 2 was proposed for deletion by Frank MacDermot.Dáil 2 June 1937 p.19 cc.1617–30 He and William Norton expressed opposition to an Order of Merit, and suggested that the French Legion of Honour was used to reward political cronies. Éamon de Valera, the President of the Executive Council and chief architect of the Constitution, responded: If the State were anxious to confer an order indicating a certain standard of excellence or performance in science, literature or art, I should be slow to debar it from the start and say that under no circumstances should a recognition of special service be possible by the State. If I am assured it is not necessary, I shall be only too glad to omit the provision, as I should be glad to omit the whole thing if there was any reason for doing so.

At recommittal the following week, de Valera proposed the deletion of the second sentence of Article 40.2.1°, which was agreed.Dáil 9 June 1937 p.17 c.183

Genealogical Office

The Ulster King of Arms continued to issue grants of arms across all Ireland until 1943, when the functions of the office were taken over by the Norroy King of Arms and restricted to Northern Ireland. In the Republic from 1943 the Chief Herald of Ireland has been part of the Genealogical Office and continues to grant arms to individuals and corporate persons. Until 2003 the office also recognised Chiefs of the Name as senior known patrilineal descendant of a clan chief in medieval Gaelic Ireland. This was discontinued in 2003 after irregularities in the process were publicised; the Herald's announcement stated: Courtesy recognition was intended to amount to nothing more than the recognition of a genealogical fact (ie that the individual concerned was the most senior known male descendant of the last inaugurated or de facto chief of a particular name in power around the end of the sixteenth century) and was not intended to confer, confirm or imply any rights in law, or any special status or title of nobility or of honour.

Oireachtas and government

In 1998, the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution noted that the question of a state honours system had "been raised in a desultory manner by governments since 1930".Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution 1998, p.10 Dáil questions were asked by Patrick O'Donnell in 1954;Dáil 22 April 1954 p.3 Seán Moore in 1976Dáil 21 January 1976 p.4 and 1981;Dáil 20 October 1981 p.3 Michael O'Leary in 1981;Dáil 11 February 1981 p.7 Gay Mitchell in 1986;Dáil 4 November 1986 p.4 Bernard Durkan in JuneDáil 29 June 1988 p.14 and October 1988,Dáil 25 October 1988 p.4 1991,Dáil 18 June 1991 p.3 FebruaryDáil 25 February 1992 p.6 and July 1992,Dáil 8 July 1992 p.77 and 1994;Dáil 2 March 1994 p.8 and Michael Bell in 1991.Dáil 19 February 1991 p.4 The usual response was that all-party consensus was not forthcoming. In 1986, Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald suggested the party whips might discuss the issue. The Department of the Taoiseach file on Bell's question, released in 2021 under the thirty-year rule, pointed out that Bob Geldof, a prominent Irish recipient of an honorary British KBE, had derided the idea of an Irish honours system, and that there was widespread public suspicion that politicians would abuse any honours system to reward cronies.

The Gaisce President's Award scheme for young people was established in 1985 by the Fine Gael–Labour government, based on a pilot scheme introduced in 1982 by the previous Fianna Fáil government. Charles Haughey stated:Dáil 31 October 1985 p.22 We had hoped that if successful it would lead to the solution of another problem, namely, the problem of some honours system in this State which has so far lamentably failed to get off the ground under any Government. We thought that if this award scheme for young people could be launched and got under way in a totally constructive, non-partisan, non-political atmosphere, it would serve as a headline to be followed on a broader scene. Unfortunately it was not to be. Garret FitzGerald denied the allegation that the Gaisce committee was party-biased. In 1988, after Haughey had returned to power, he stated "As indicated previously in this House, the matter of an honours system is not under consideration".

1998–99