Lord Mayor of Dublin

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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 of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The Lord Mayor is elected to office annually by members of Dublin City Council (previously known as Dublin Corporation) from amongst its members. The current Lord Mayor (June 2006 to June 2007) is Councillor Vincent Jackson. A member of the independent Community grouping on the council, Councillor Jackson represents the Ballyfermot area of Dublin on the council and is Dublin's 337th Lord Mayor.

1 Background
2 List of famous (and infamous) Lords Mayor
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Background

The office of Mayor of Dublin was created in June 1229 by Prince Henry III. (English monarchs were style "Prince" in Ireland until Henry VIII "asked" the Irish Parliament to give him the title "King"). The office of Mayor was elevated to Lord Mayor in 1665 by King Charles II, and as part of this process received the honorific The Right Honourable (Rt. Hon.). Lords Mayor were ex-officio members of the Privy Council of Ireland, which also entitled them to be addressed the Right Honourable. Though the Privy Council was de facto abolished in 1922, the Lord Mayor continued to be entitled to be addressed as the Right Honourable as a result of the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840, which granted the title in law. The Local Government Act 2001 finally removed the title as a conseqence of the repeal of the 1840 act.

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was fundamentally reformed and democratised, by the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840; this has since being superseded by the Local Government Act 2001.

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. 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.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin resides in the eighteeth century Mansion House on Dawson Street.

The most famous privilege enjoyed by the Lord Mayor is to receive the first car registered in Dublin at the beginning of each new year, ie. in 2007 the Mayor's car registration is 07-D-1. It can regularly be seen parked outside the Mansion House.