Lord Mayor of Dublin

The Mansion House, on Dawson Street, is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin (Irish: Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath) is the symbolic head of the city government of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The Lord Mayor is elected to office annually by members of Dublin City Council (previously known as Dublin Corporation) from amongst its members. The current Lord Mayor is Labour Party Councillor Emer Costello.

The four local authorities in County Dublin (Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, South Dublin) may get a directly elected mayor with executive powers over planning policy, waste management, water services and housing in 2010. The new mayor may also be chair of the new Dublin Transport Authority.^[1]

Background

The office of Mayor of Dublin was created in June 1229 by Prince Henry III. (English monarchs were titled "Prince" in Ireland until Henry VIII asked the Irish Parliament to give him the title "King"). The office of Mayor was elevated to Lord Mayor in 1665 by King Charles II, and as part of this process received the honorific The Right Honourable (Rt. Hon.). Lords Mayor were ex-officio members of the Privy Council of Ireland, which also entitled them to be addressed the Right Honourable. Though the Privy Council was de facto abolished in 1922, the Lord Mayor continued to be entitled to be addressed as the Right Honourable as a result of the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, which granted the title in law. The Local Government Act 2001 finally removed the title as a consequence of the repeal of the 1840 act.

Before 1840, the Lord Mayor was selected through a complicated method from the City Assembly. In 1840 the whole method of election to the new Council was reformed and democratised, by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840; this has since being superseded by the Local Government Act 2001.

The office of Lord Mayor is largely symbolic, and its responsibilities mainly consist of chairing meetings of the City Council, and representing the city at public events. Apart from a few reserved functions which are exercised by the City Council as a whole, executive power is exercised by the City Manager, a Council official appointed by the Public Appointments Service (formerly by the Local Appointments Commission). Except on a handful of occasions where the city government has been suspended for not striking a rate (a level of local tax), Dublin has had a mayor for nearly eight hundred years.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin resides in the eighteenth century Mansion House on Dawson Street.

A privilege enjoyed by the Lord Mayor is to receive the first car registered in Dublin at the beginning of each new year, ie. in 2007 the Mayor's car registration was "07–D–1".

Notable early mayors

Mayoress Margaret Ball and Mayor Francis Taylor

• Richard Muton 1229–1230 (Dublin's first Mayor)
• Gilbert de Lyvet (Levett) 1235–1237^[2][3][4]
• Bartholomew Ball 1553–1554 (his widow Blessed Margaret Ball nee Birmingham was martyred by their eldest son, Walter)
• Walter Ball 1580–1581 (Commissioner for Ecclesiatical Causes - implemented the Reformation in Dublin)
• Francis Taylor 1595–1596 (martyred 29 January 1621)
• Sir Daniel Belingham 1665–1666 (first Lord Mayor)

List of Lord Mayors from 1841

See also

• Cities in Ireland
• Dublin City Council
• Lord Mayor of Cork

External links

• Mayors of Dublin 1229–1665 (Dublin City Council)
• Lord Mayors of Dublin 1665–present (Dublin City Council)

References