Lord Mayor of Dublin
The Lord Mayor of Dublin is the head of the city government in the Republic of Ireland's capital. He or she is elected annually by members of Dublin City Council (previously known as Dublin Corporation) from amongst its members. Before 1840, he was selected from through a complicated method from the City Assembly. In 1840 the whole method of election to the new Council was fundamentally reformed and democratised.The office of Mayor of Dublin was created in 1229. It was elevated to Lord Mayor in 1665. Lords Mayor were ex-officio members of the Irish Privy Council. Though the Irish Privy Council was de facto abolished in 1922, the honorific that indicated membership, the Right Honourable (Rt. Hon.) is still put before the Lord Mayor's title. 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.
Among the famous Dublin Lords Mayor were:
- Sir Daniel Belingham (first Lord Mayor)
- Daniel O'Connell, MP 1841-1842 (first Roman Catholic Lord Mayor since 1690)
- Sir John Barrington - 1865
- Edmund Dwyer Gray - 1880
- Sir Thomas Devereux Pile (Baronet) 1900-1901
- Alfie Byrne, TD - 1930-1939
- Caitlín Bean Uí Chléirigh 1939-1941 (first female Lord Mayor)
- Robert Briscoe 1961-1962 (first Jewish Lord Mayor)
- Jim Mitchell 1976-1977 (youngest Lord Mayor, aged 29)
- Ben Briscoe 1988-1989 (first son of a previous Lord Mayor)
- Sean Haughey 1989-1990 (son of then Taoiseach, Charles Haughey)
The Lord Mayor of Dublin resides in the eighteeth century Mansion House (shown above) in Dawson Street.
