User:Jnestorius/Irish Office

Government of Ireland Act 1920

• McColgan, John (1983) British policy and the Irish administration, 1920-22

  p.117–118 "Since February ... 38 Old Queen Street, London, had replaced ... Dublin Castle, as the central ... The Treasury prepared ... for the 1922-3 financial year ... ‘rag bag vote’ ... not only of the Irish Office (including what was left of its ‘branch’ at Dublin Castle), but also the reserved services in Northern Ireland and those departments whose functions were not transferred to the provisional government on 1 April [1922]." Sir John Anderson 21 March 1920 promoted from "secretary to the Irish Office" to "permanent under-secretary to the Home Office, although, as such, he remained generally responsible for the administration of Irish policy".

  p.119 NI govt wanted agriculture agreement with Irish Office but in May 1920 Chief Secretary backed off after Dublin govt protested

  p.120 October 1920 "an Imperial Secretary’s Office was set up to administer the Council of Ireland services and certain other reserved services" with Stephen Tallents [ex-Irish Office] as Imperial Secretary. Existed till 1925 abolition of Council of Ireland. Tallents "was ‘attached to the governor of Northern Ireland’ and under personal authority from the [UK] Minister of Transport for the administration of railways and from the [UK] Home Secretary for other matters. Tallents’s instructions for most purposes therefore came directly from Sir John Anderson, Home Office permanent under-secretary, rather than through the locally [in NI] unpopular Irish Office who were also responsible to the Colonial Secretary [?after 6 Dec 1922?] for Free State affairs."

  p.130 n.124 "from 6 December 1922 Old Queen Street dealt with all Irish business and became responsible to the Colonial Office for matters relating to the Free State and to the Home Office for matters relating to Northern Ireland."

Comparing these...:

• TNA C9131: Imperial Secretary to the Governor of Northern Ireland "The office was abolished in 1926"
• UK Parliament>House of Commons Library>Research Briefing>CBP-8884: Parliament and Northern Ireland, 1921-2021 "3.3 Governor of Northern Ireland" p.39: 'An “Imperial Secretary” was appointed to advise both the Governor and the Government of Northern Ireland on reserved matters until that post was also deemed superfluous and abolished in 1926.'

... with McColgan p.120, it seems Imperial Secretary was specifically not part of Irish Office.

National Archives Irish Office records are divided between Colonial Office and Home Office:

• TNA C9212 Irish Branch Files "Files of the Irish Branch (until 1922 the Irish Office) which was responsible to both the Home Office and the Colonial Office. The Irish Branch was dissolved in 1924 and this series contains those files inherited by the Home Office which have been preserved. They relate to Northern Ireland and cover a wide range of subjects."
• TNA C5095: Irish Office: Records 1796-1924