THE IRISH PEERAGE AND THE ACT OF UNION, 1800–1971

Abstract

THERE was always an important, though varying, distinction between the Irish peerage and the Irish House of Lords. The former dated from the late twelfth century, and the latter, or at least something discernible as its forerunner, from the late thirteenth. From then until the early seventeenth century, because men who were neither temporal nor spiritual peers attended the House of Lords (though in decreasingly significant numbers) by virtue of a writ of summons only, the House of Lords was a larger body than the Irish peerage. Thereafter, due to the number of non-Irishmen and/or non-residents who were created Irish peers, the House of Lords became the smaller body, because such people seldom or never attended.