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unusual facts about Chief Secretary for Ireland



1882 in Ireland

6 May - Phoenix Park Murders: Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, his Permanent Undersecretary, are fatally stabbed in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by members of the "Irish National Invincibles".

Conscription Crisis of 1918

The plan simply called for a letter (drafted by Hay, and approved by Edward Shortt, then Chief Secretary for Ireland) to be sent by the French Primate to the Irish bishops, requesting that they soften their opposition to conscription to aid the war effort in France.

Earl of Chichester

He was also an influential politician and held office as Chief Secretary for Ireland, as Home Secretary and as Postmaster General.

Earl of Mayo

Known for most of his life under his courtesy title of Lord Naas, he was three times Chief Secretary for Ireland and served as Governor-General of India from 1869 to 1872, when he was assassinated on the Andaman Islands.

George Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle

Carlisle served under Lord Melbourne as Chief Secretary for Ireland between 1835 and 1841, under Lord John Russell as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests from 1846 to 1850 and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1850 to 1852 and under Lord Palmerston as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1855 to 1858 and again from 1859 to 1864.

Irish Land Commission

A further Land Act in 1909 fostered by the liberal Chief Secretary for Ireland Augustine Birrell allowed for tenanted land where the owner was unwilling to sell to be bought by the Commission by compulsory purchase.

Irish Republican Brotherhood

In 1882, a breakaway IRB faction calling itself the Irish National Invincibles assassinated the British Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish and his secretary, in an incident known as the Phoenix Park Murders.

Neville Francis Fitzgerald Chamberlain

In reports to the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Augustine Birrell, and the Under-Secretary, Sir Matthew Nathan, Chamberlain warned that the Volunteers were preparing to stage an insurrection and proclaim Irish independence.

William Hepworth Thompson

Gerald Balfour, then a junior Fellow of the College, later politician and Chief Secretary for Ireland, proposed a revision of the College Statutes.


see also

Dublin Castle administration

Other major officers in the Dublin Castle administration included the Chief Secretary for Ireland, the Under-Secretary, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the Attorney-General for Ireland (briefly replaced under the Government of Ireland Act by the Attorney-General for Southern Ireland), and the Solicitor-General for Ireland.

Irish National Invincibles

Newly installed Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish, on the very day of his arrival to Ireland, was walking with Burke when the assassins struck, in Phoenix Park, in Dublin, at 17:30 Saturday, 6 May 1882, in what were to become known as the Phoenix Park Murders.

John Stanley

Sir John Stanley, 1st Baronet (1663–1744), Chief Secretary for Ireland and Member of Parliament (MP) for Gorey

Parnell Commission

On 6 May 1882 two leading members of the British Government in Ireland, Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish and the Permanent Under-Secretary for Ireland T.H. Burke were stabbed to death in Phoenix Park, Dublin by the Irish National Invincibles (see Phoenix Park Murders).

Spearwood, Western Australia

Phoenix Road was named by John Healy after Phoenix Park Dublin, where the British Chief Secretary for Ireland was assassinated by Fenians in 1882, although an alternative suggestion is that it was named by Steve Dobra, the first settler on Phoenix Road, who worked in Phoenix, Arizona before coming to Western Australia in 1912.

William Forster

William Edward Forster (1818–1886), British statesman, Liberal MP, and Chief Secretary for Ireland.

William Marwood

Joe Brady and four other members of the Irish National Invincibles gang who murdered Lord Frederick Cavendish, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, the Permanent Under-Secretary for Ireland, with surgical knives in Dublin's Phoenix Park; they were hanged at Kilmainham Jail in Dublin in 1883.

William Ponsonby

William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704–1793), British & Irish MP, Chief Secretary for Ireland, Postmaster-General of Great Britain