The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisions of Peerages in the United Kingdom. The creation of such titles came to an end in the 19th century. The ranks of the Irish peerage are duke, marquess, earl, viscount and baron. As of 2016, there were 135 titles in the Peerage of Ireland extant: two dukedoms, ten marquessates, 43 earldoms, 28 viscountcies, and 52 baronies. However, these titles have no official recognition in the Republic of Ireland, with Article 40.2 of the Constitution of Ireland forbidding the state conferring titles of nobility and stating that an Irish citizen may not accept titles of nobility or honour except with the prior approval of the Irish government.
In the following table, each peer is listed only by his highest Irish title, showing higher or equal titles in the other peerages. Those peers who are known by a higher title in one of the other peerages are listed in italics.
A modest number of titles in the peerage of Ireland date from the Middle Ages. Before 1801, Irish peers had the right to sit in the Irish House of Lords, on the abolition of which by the Union effective in 1801 by an Act of 1800 they elected a small proportion – twenty-eight Irish representative peers – of their number (and elected replacements as they died) to the House of Lords at Westminster.
Both before and after the Union, Irish peerages were often used as a way of creating peerages which did not grant a seat in the House of Lords of England (before 1707) or Great Britain (after 1707) and so allowed the grantee (such as Clive of India) to sit in the House of Commons in London. As a consequence, many late-made Irish peers had little or no connection to Ireland, and indeed the names of some Irish peerages refer to places in Great Britain (for example, the Earldom of Mexborough refers to a place in England and the Earldom of Ranfurly refers to a village in Scotland).
Irish peerages continued to be created for almost a century after the union, although the treaty of union placed restrictions on their numbers: three needed to become extinct before a new peerage could be granted, until there were only one hundred Irish peers (exclusive of those who held any peerage of Great Britain subsisting at the time of the union, or of the United Kingdom created since the union). There was a spate of creations of Irish peerages from 1797 onward, mostly peerages of higher ranks for existing Irish peers, as part of the negotiation of the Act of Union; this ended in the first week of January 1801, but the restrictions of the Act were not applied to the last few peers. In the following decades, Irish peerages were created at least as often as the Act permitted until at least 1856.[1] But the pace then slowed, with only four more being created in the rest of the 19th century, and none in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The last two grants of Irish peerages were the promotion of the Marquess of Abercorn (a peerage of Great Britain) to be Duke of Abercorn in the Irish Peerage when he became Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1868 and the granting of the Curzon of Kedleston barony to George Curzon when he became Viceroy of India in 1898. Peers of Ireland have precedence below peers of England, Scotland, and Great Britain of the same rank, and above peers of the United Kingdom of the same rank; but Irish peers created after 1801 yield to United Kingdom peers of earlier creation. Accordingly, the Duke of Abercorn (the junior duke in the Peerage of Ireland) ranks between the Duke of Sutherland and the Duke of Westminster (both dukes in the Peerage of the United Kingdom).
When one of the Irish representative peers died, the Irish Peerage met to elect his replacement; but the office required to arrange this were abolished as part of the creation of the Irish Free State. The existing representative peers kept their seats in the House of Lords, but they have not been replaced. Since the death of Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey in 1961, none remains. The right of the Irish Peerage to elect representatives was abolished by the Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971.
Titles in the Peerage of the United Kingdom have also referred to places in Ireland, for example Baron Arklow (created 1801 and 1881) or Baron Killarney (created 1892 and 1920). Since partition, only places in Northern Ireland have been used, although the 1880 title "Baron Mount Temple, of Mount Temple in the County of Sligo", was recreated in 1932 as "Baron Mount Temple, of Lee in the County of Southampton".
In the following table of the Peerage of Ireland as it currently stands, each peer's highest titles in each of the other peerages (if any) are also listed.
Irish peers possessed of titles in any of the other peerages (except Scotland, which only got the right to an automatic seat in 1963, with the Peerage Act 1963) had automatic seats in the House of Lords until 1999.
The Earl of Darnley inherited the Baron Clifton in the Peerage of England in 1722–1900 and 1937–1999 as the barony is in writ.
| Country | Peerage | Years |
|---|---|---|
| England | 1066–1707 | |
| Scotland | c. 1140–1707 | |
| Ireland | c. 1170–1922 | |
| Great Britain | 1707–1801 | |
 United Kingdom | United Kingdom | 1801–present |
| Shield | Title | Creation | Other Dukedom or higher titles House of Lords titles | Monarch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Duke of Leinster | 26 November 1766 | Viscount Leinster | 1747–1999 | King George III | |
| Baron Kildare | 1870–1999 | ||||
| The Duke of Abercorn | 10 August 1868 | Marquess of Abercorn | 1790–1999 | Queen Victoria | |
| Viscount Hamilton | 1786–1999 | ||||
| Shield | Title | Creation | Other Marquessate or higher titles House of Lords titles | Monarch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Marquess of Kildare | 3 March 1761 | Duke of Leinster in Peerage of Ireland. | King George III | ||
| The Marquess of Waterford | 19 August 1789 | Baron Tyrone | 1786–1999 | ||
| The Marquess of Downshire[2] | 20 August 1789 | Earl of Hillsborough | 1772–1999 | ||
| Baron Harwich | 1756–1999 | ||||
| Baron Sandys | Since 2013 | ||||
| The Marquess of Donegall[3] | 4 July 1791 | Baron Fisherwick | 1790–1999 | ||
| Baron Templemore | 1975–1999 | ||||
| The Marquess of Headfort | 29 December 1800 | Baron Kenlis | 1831–1999 | ||
| The Marquess of Sligo | 29 December 1800 | Baron Monteagle | 1806–1999 | ||
| The Marquess of Ely | 29 December 1800 | Baron Loftus | 1801–1999 | ||
| The Marquess Conyngham | 1 January 1816 | Baron Minster | 1821–1999 | The Prince Regent on behalf of King George III | |
| The Marquess of Londonderry | 13 January 1816 | Earl Vane | 1823–1999 | ||
| Baron Stewart | 1814–1999 | ||||
| Shield | Title | Creation | Other Viscountcy or higher titles House of Lords titles | Monarch | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Viscount Gormanston | 7 August 1478 | Baron Gormanston | 1868–1999 | King Edward IV | |
| The Viscount Mountgarret | 23 October 1550 | Baron Mountgarret | 1911–1999 | King Edward VI | |
| The Viscount Grandison | 3 July 1620 | Earl of Jersey in the Peerage of England. | King James I | ||
| The Viscount Moore | 7 February 1621 | Earl of Drogheda in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Valentia | 11 March 1622 | ||||
| The Viscount Dillon | 16 March 1622 | ||||
| The Viscount Callan | 22 November 1622 | Earl of Denbigh in the Peerage of England. | |||
| The Viscount Chichester | 1 April 1625 | Marquess of Donegall in the Peerage of Ireland. | King Charles I | ||
| The Viscount Kilmorey | 18 April 1625 | Earl of Kilmorey in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Boyle of Kinalmeaky | 28 February 1627 | Earl of Cork in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Lumley | 12 July 1628 | Earl of Scarbrough in the Peerage of England. | |||
| The Viscount Ikerrin | 12 May 1629 | Earl of Carrick in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Massereene | 21 November 1660 | King Charles II | |||
| The Viscount Cholmondeley | 29 March 1661 | Marquess of Cholmondeley in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. | |||
| The Viscount Charlemont | 8 October 1665 | ||||
| The Viscount Granard | 29 June 1675 | Earl of Granard in the Peerage of Ireland | |||
| The Viscount Downe | 19 February 1681 | Baron Dawnay | 1897–1999 | ||
| The Viscount Lisburne | 29 June 1695 | Earl of Lisburne in the Peerage of Ireland | King William III | ||
| The Viscount Strabane | 2 September 1701 | Duke of Abercorn in the Peerage of Ireland | |||
| The Viscount Molesworth | 10 Jul 1716 | King George I | |||
| The Viscount Chetwynd | 29 June 1717 | ||||
| The Viscount Midleton | 15 August 1717 | Baron Brodrick | 1796–1999 | ||
| The Viscount Boyne | 20 August 1717 | Baron Brancepeth | 1866–1999 | ||
| The Viscount Hillsborough | 29 May 1719 | Marquess of Downshire in the Peerage of Ireland | |||
| The Viscount Grimston | 29 May 1719 | Earl of Verulam in the Peerage of the United Kingdom | |||
| The Viscount Gage | 14 September 1720 | Baron Gage | 1790–1999 | ||
| The Viscount Tyrone | 4 November 1720 | Marquess of Waterford in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Clanmaurice | 17 January 1722 | Marquess of Lansdowne in the Peerage of Great Britain. | |||
| The Viscount Duncannon | 28 February 1723 | Earl of Bessborough in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Darnley | 7 March 1723 | Earl of Darnley in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Galway | 17 July 1727 | King George II | |||
| The Viscount Powerscourt | 4 February 1743 | Baron Powerscourt | 1885–1999 | ||
| The Viscount Ashbrook | 30 September 1751 | ||||
| The Viscount Kilwarlin | 3 October 1751 | Marquess of Downshire in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Fitzmaurice | 7 October 1751 | Marquess of Lansdowne in the Peerage of Great Britain. | |||
| The Viscount Jocelyn | 6 December 1755 | Earl of Roden in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Sudley | 15 August 1758 | Earl of Arran in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Headfort | 12 April 1762 | Marquess of Headfort in the Peerage of Ireland. | King George III | ||
| The Viscount Glerawly | 14 November 1766 | Earl Annesley in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Kingsborough | 15 November 1766 | Earl of Kingston in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Clanwilliam | 17 November 1766 | Earl of Clanwilliam in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Westport | 24 August 1768 | Marquess of Sligo in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Southwell | 18 July 1776 | ||||
| The Viscount de Vesci | 19 July 1776 | ||||
| The Viscount Enniskillen | 20 July 1776 | Earl of Enniskillen in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Carlow | 24 July 1776 | Earl of Portarlington in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Erne | 6 January 1781 | Earl Erne in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Lifford | 8 January 1781 | ||||
| The Viscount Bangor | 11 January 1781 | ||||
| The Viscount Mayo | 13 January 1781 | Earl of Mayo in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Gosford | 20 June 1785 | Earl of Gosford in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Doneraile | 22 June 1785 | ||||
| The Viscount Belmore | 6 December 1789 | Earl Belmore in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Conyngham | 6 December 1789 | Marquess Conyngham in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Harberton | 5 July 1791 | ||||
| The Viscount Northland | 5 July 1791 | Earl of Ranfurly in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Hawarden | 5 December 1793 | ||||
| The Viscount Castle Stuart | 20 December 1793 | Earl Castle Stewart in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Loftus | 2 March 1794 | Marquess of Ely in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Castlereagh | 1 October 1795 | Marquess of Londonderry in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Mount Charles | 5 November 1797 | Marquess Conyngham in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Ferrard | 22 November 1797 | Held by with Viscount Massereene in the Peerage of Ireland since 1843. | |||
| Baron Oriel | 1821–1999 | ||||
| The Viscount Caledon | 23 November 1797 | Earl of Caledon in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Donoughmore | 20 December 1797 | Earl of Donoughmore in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Dunlo | 29 December 1800 | Earls of Clancarty in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Somerton | 29 December 1800 | Earl of Normanton in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Monck | 5 January 1801 | Baron Monck | 1866–1999 | King George III | |
| The Viscount Lorton | 28 May 1806 | Earl of Kingston in the Peerage of Ireland. | |||
| The Viscount Ennismore and Listowel | 15 January 1816 | Earl of Listowel in the Peerage of Ireland. | The Prince Regent on behalf of King George III | ||
| The Viscount Gort | 16 January 1816 | ||||
In Ireland, barony may also refer to a semi-obsolete political subdivision of a county. There is no connection between such a barony and the noble title of baron.
See also: List of baronies in the Peerage of Ireland.
Two Irish earldoms have become extinct since the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, both in 2011: