Attorney-General for Ireland



The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the duties of the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General for Ireland were taken over by the Attorney General of Ireland. The office of Solicitor-General for Ireland was abolished at the same time for reasons of economy. This led to repeated complaints from the first Attorney General of Ireland, Hugh Kennedy, about the "immense volume of work" which he was now forced to deal with single-handedly.

History of the Office
The first record of the office of Attorney General for Ireland, some 50 years after the equivalent office was established in England, is in 1313, when Richard Manning or Mannyn was appointed King's Attorney, or "King's Serjeant who follows the pleas" (the title Attorney General was not used until the 1530s), at a salary of 5 marks a year. The Attorney General was initially junior to the serjeant-at-law, but since the titles King's Serjeant and King's Attorney were often used interchangeably, as in the case of Richard Manning, it can be difficult to establish who held which office at any given time. Thomas Dowdall, for example, like Manning before him, was called Serjeant-at-law and King's Attorney in the 1460s at almost the same time. Early holders of the office, including Manning, were permitted to take private clients. Manning is on record as acting as attorney for Meiler Kendal in 1310, prior to his appointment as Attorney-General. Casey states that the records cast very little light on the duties of the Attorney-General in the early years, possibly a reflection of his inferior status compared to the Serjeant-at-law.

There are at least two references to a Deputy Attorney-General. The first was in 1385, when Robert Hemynborough, or de Hemynborgh, was appointed Attorney-General "with power to appoint a Deputy". Two centuries later, Edward Butler, who became Attorney-General in 1582, had acted as Deputy from 1578 to 1580. Apart from these two examples, there is no evidence that the Deputy Attorney-General was a permanent position, nor do we know why it was considered necessary to appoint Butler to this office (pressure of work may be the explanation).

The early Attorneys-General might be licensed to appear in certain courts only. William Rouse (1342), Peter de Leycestre (1357), William Lynnoor (1359), Henry Mitchell (1372) and John Barry (1401) were all given a patent to plead in the Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Exchequer. John White was described in 1426 as "King's Attorney in the King's Bench and the Exchequer". Robert le Hore in 1379 was appointed King's Attorney to plead "before the justices of the Bench (this was not the  Couurt of  Bench but an early name for the Court of Common Pleas) and the Treasurer and chamberlains of the Exchequer". In 1499 Clement Fitzleones, less typically, was appointed "King's Attorney in all Courts". The Serjeant-at-law, by contrast, was generally licensed to appear in all the Royal Courts, although John Haire in 1392 was described as "Serjeant-at-law of our Lord the King in the Common Pleas".

Perhaps because the Attorney-General was in the earlier centuries junior to the Serjeant-at-law, some holders of the office were probably not as highly qualified as the Serjeant. Thomas Archbold (or Galmole), appointed Attorney-General in 1478, was a goldsmith by profession, and, perhaps more suitably, was also Master of the Royal Mint in Ireland.

The Attorney-General and the Serjeant-at-law
In 1537 there was a short-lived attempt, following the report of a royal commission, to expand the role of the Attorney General, and abolish the office of King's Serjeant. The proposal was defeated largely through the firm opposition of the Serjeant-at-law, Patrick Barnewall, who argued that pleading cases on behalf of the Crown was and always had been the proper task of the Serjeant-at-law: "the King's Serjeant has always used to maintain the Pleas.... for this two hundred years and more". Why the more junior office was favoured over the much longer-established office of Serjeant is not clear.

From the early 1660s, due largely to the personal prestige of Sir William Domville (AG 1660–1686), the Attorney General became the chief legal adviser to the Crown. In certain periods, notably during the reign of Elizabeth I, who thought poorly of most of her Irish-born law officers, the English Crown adopted a policy of choosing only English lawyers for this office, and also the Solicitor-General. Her successor King James I in 1620, on the appointment of Sir William Ryves, noted that the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General "have always been of the King's choice and special nomination", and that they were the Crown servants in whom the King places, above his other learned counsel and officers of the Court: "his more special trust regarding the preservation of his revenue and possessions". It is interesting that the King here seems to place the Attorney and the Solicitor above the Serjeant-at-law in importance.

Attorney-General in politics
The Attorney-General, in later centuries at least, was always a member of the Privy Council of Ireland (in earlier centuries as a rule only the Serjeant-at-law attended the Council, but Stephen Roche, Attorney General 1441–44, attended the Great Council of 1441).

A strong Attorney, like Philip Tisdall, William Saurin, or Francis Blackburne, could exercise great influence over the Dublin administration. Tisdall (AG 1760–1777), was for much of his tenure as Attorney General also the Government leader in the Irish House of Commons, and a crucial member of the administration. Saurin (AG 1807–1822) was regarded for many years as the effective head of the Dublin Government, until his career was ended by his opposition to Catholic Emancipation. In 1841 Blackburne (AG 1830–1834, 1841–1842), on being challenged about a proposed appointment within his own office, said firmly that he "would not a refusal to ratify the appointment".

The office of Attorney General was described as being "a great mixture of law and general political reasoning".

14th century

 * Richard Manning: appears as a barrister in private practice in 1310; appointed "King's Attorney" or King's  Serjeant for Ireland 1313. Still in office in 1327.
 * William de Woodworth: c. 1327
 * Thomas of Westham: 1334
 * William Rouse: 17 April 1342
 * William le Petit: 1343
 * Nicholas Lumbard, or Lombard: 1345
 * Robert de Emeldon: 1348
 * Robert Preston, 1st Baron Gormanston: 1355
 * John de Leycestre, or Lecestre: 1357
 * William Lynnoor: 12 February 1359
 * Henry Mitchell: 1372; promoted to Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer 1376
 * Robert Hore, or le Hore: 1379, superseded 1381. He appears to have served a second term in 1383–84, as he was re-appointed on 21 October 1383 and the Close Rolls have an order to pay his arrears of salary for those two years. On 28 July 1385 he was ordered not to "interefere" with the Office of Attorney-General any further.
 * Thomas Malalo: 15 January 1381
 * Robert Hemynborgh or de Hemynborough: 18 July 1385 (first term). He had the power to appoint a Deputy, one of the very few references in the records to such an office. His patent of office was renewed in 1407 on the same terms. He was to receive the same salary as Henry Mitchell had i.e. 1 pound and 1 shilling.

16th century
incomplete - Smyth in his book Chronicle of the Irish Law Officers (London, 1839) noted that the destruction of many State records made it impossible to compile a full list of holders of the office. With the exception of one roll for the 6th year of Henry VIII (1514-5), the patent rolls for the reign of that monarch were extant from the 22nd year of his reign (1530-31), at the time of the Four Courts fire in 1922.

20th century
The office was vacant from 16 November 1921 and succeeded by the Attorney General of the Irish Free State on 31 January 1922. The office of Attorney General for Northern Ireland had been created in June 1921.