The Governor-General (Seanascal) was the official representative of the Sovereign in the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1936. By convention, the Office of Governor-General was largely ceremonial. Nonetheless, it was controversial, as many nationalists saw it as offensive to republican principles and a symbol of continued Irish subservience to the United Kingdom. For this reason the office was widely unpopular and had its role increasingly diminished over time.
The 1931 enactment in London of the Statute of Westminster from a British perspective officially gave the Irish Free State's full legislative independence, however this event was not marked in Dublin as the Irish considered that full legislative independence had been achieved in 1922. The role of governor-general in the Irish Free State was officially abolished on the 11 December 1936.
The first two governors-general lived in an official residence, the Viceregal Lodge, now known as Áras an Uachtaráin (and now the official residence of the President of Ireland). The last governor-general resided in a specially leased private residence in Booterstown, County Dublin.
The governor-general was officially referred to as His Excellency. However, unlike all the other governors-general within the British Empire in the 1920s and 1930s, none of the Governors-General of the Irish Free State were ever sworn in as members of the Imperial Privy Council.
Governors-General of the Irish Free State (1922–1936)[]
- Main article: Governors-General of the Irish Free State