Lord Mayor of Dublin - Definition and Overview

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

The Lord Mayor of Dublin is the symbolic 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. The current Lord Mayor (June 2004 to June 2005) is Councillor Michael Conaghan. A member of the Labour Party, the largest group on the council, Cllr Conaghan represents the Ballyfermot area of Dublin on the council. He is Dublin's 375th Lord Mayor. The deputy Lord Mayor is Councillor Andrew Montague, also a member of the Labour Party. 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 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 current Lord Mayor is Councillor Michael Conaghan.

The office of Lord Mayor is largely symbolic, and its responsibilities largely 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, an unelected Council official.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin resides in the eighteeth century Mansion House (shown above) in Dawson Street.