Attorney-General for Ireland

The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, the duties of the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General for Ireland were taken over by the Attorney General of Ireland. The office of Solicitor-General for Ireland was abolished at the same time for reasons of economy. This led to repeated complaints from the first Attorney General of Ireland, Hugh Kennedy, about the "immense volume of work" which he was now forced to deal with single-handedly. History of the Office The first record of the office of Attorney General for Ireland, some 50 years after the equivalent office was established in England, is in 1313, when Richard Manning or Mannyn was appointed King's Attorney, or "King's Serjeant who follows the pleas" (the title Attorney General was not used until the 1530s), at a salary of 5 marks a year. The Attorney General was initially junior to the serjeant-at-law, but since the titles King's Serjeant and King's Attorney were often used interchangeably, as in the case of Richard Manning, it can be difficult to establish who held which office at any given time. Thomas Dowdall, for example, like Manning before him, was called Serjeant-at-law and King's Attorney in the 1460s at almost the same time. Early holders of the office, including Manning, were permitted to take private clients. Manning is on record as acting as attorney for Meiler Kendal in 1310, prior to his appointment as Attorney-General. Casey states that the records cast very little light on the duties of the Attorney-General in the early years, possibly a reflection of his inferior status compared to the Serjeant-at-law. There are at least two references to a Deputy Attorney-General. The first was in 1385, when Robert Hemynborough, or de Hemynborgh, was appointed Attorney-General "with power to appoint a Deputy". Two centuries later, Edward Butler, who became Attorney-General in 1582, had acted as Deputy from 1578 to 1580. Apart from these two examples, there is no evidence that the Deputy Attorney-General was a permanent position, nor do we know why it was considered necessary to appoint Butler to this office (pressure of work may be the explanation). The early Attorneys-General might be licensed to appear in certain courts only.