chief governor of Ireland

The chief governor was the senior official in the Dublin Castle administration, which maintained English and British rule in Ireland from the 1170s to 1922. The chief governor was the viceroy of the English monarch (and later the British monarch) and presided over the Privy Council of Ireland. In some periods he was in effective charge of the administration, subject only to the monarch in England; in others he was a figurehead and power was wielded by others. Nomenclature "Chief governor" is an umbrella term favoured by eighteenth-century historians Walter Harris and John Lodge and subsequently used by many historians and statutes. It was occasionally used before then. Chief governors were appointed under various titles, the most common of which were: (Chief) justiciar (13th–14th centuries) (King's) lieutenant (14th–16th century) Lord Deputy (15th–17th centuries) Lord Lieutenant (1660–1922) more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor or Lieutenant-General and Governor-General and colloquially called the Viceroy. Less common titles include procurator and gubernator, and the temporary title custos or keeper. Sometimes individuals with different titles served simultaneously, in which case the order of precedence was: lieutenant > justiciar > custos > deputy (lieutenant) > deputy justiciar. The title "Deputy", and later "Lord Deputy", was originally applied to the resident deputy of a non-resident king's lieutenant, when the latter title was an honour bestowed on a favoured English noble. Latterly, such resident deputies were called Lord Justices.