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Lord Mayor of Dublin

The Lord Mayor of Dublin (Irish: Ardmhéara Bhaile Átha Cliath)[a] is the honorary title of the chairperson (Irish: Cathaoirleach [ˈkahiːɾˠl̠ʲəx]) of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The incumbent, since June 2024, is councillor James Geoghegan.[1] The office holder is elected annually by the members of the council.

"Mayor of Dublin" redirects here. For another use, see Proposed directly elected mayor for the Dublin metropolitan area.

Lord Mayor of Dublin

Mansion House

Dublin City Council

1 year

  • Richard Muton (Mayor)
  • Sir Daniel Bellingham (Lord Mayor)

  • 1229 (as Mayor of Dublin)
  • 1665 (as Lord Mayor of Dublin)

Lord Mayor of Dublin

Functions[edit]

The office is largely symbolic and its responsibilities 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 chief executive, a council official appointed by the Public Appointments Service (formerly by the Local Appointments Commission). 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 resides in the eighteenth-century Mansion House on Dawson Street.


A privilege enjoyed by the Lord Mayor is to receive the first car registration number in Dublin for each new year.[2] Since 2018, each new Lord Mayor is presented with an official bicycle by the Dublin Cycling Campaign. Nial Ring was the first recipient.[3]

Richard Muton (1229–1230), Dublin's first Mayor

(1233–1234, 1235–1237)[6][7][8]

Gilbert de Lyvet

three times Mayor between 1401 and 1412, who led the Dubliners to victory over the O'Byrne clan of County Wicklow at the Battle of Bloody Bank in 1402

John Drake

(1553–1554), whose widow Blessed Margaret Ball was martyred by their eldest son, Walter

Bartholomew Ball

(1580–1581), Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Causes – implemented the Reformation in Dublin

Walter Ball

(1595–1596), who was incarcerated because of his Catholicism, and has been declared a martyr for his faith and beatified by the Catholic Church

Francis Taylor

Sir Daniel Bellingham (1665–1666), first Lord Mayor

Jean Desmynieres (1666–1667) and Lewis Desmynieres (1669–1670), Lord Mayors of Dublin

Huguenot

(1688–1689) who, although a Protestant, was a supporter of the Catholic James II

Sir Michael Creagh

Sir (1700–1701), the original founder of what was to become St James' Gate (Guinness) Brewery

Mark Rainsford

(1841–1842), leader of campaigns for Catholic Emancipation and Repeal of the Acts of Union; first Catholic Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1690

Daniel O'Connell

Sir (1865–1866 and 1879–1880), the first Quaker to hold the office

John Barrington

(1917–1924), who was Lord Mayor throughout the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War[9]

Laurence O'Neill

(1930–1939 and 1954–1955), the longest-serving Lord Mayor of Dublin in the office's 800-year history

Alfie Byrne

(1939–1941), the first woman in the post[10]

Kathleen Clarke

(1956–1957 and 1961–1962), the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin[11]

Robert Briscoe

(2020–2021), the first person of Chinese ethnicity to be mayor of a European capital[12][13]

Hazel Chu

Lord Mayor of Belfast

Lord Mayor of Cork

Mayor of Kilkenny

City status in Ireland

Lord Mayor Website

(Dublin City Council)

Lord Mayors of Dublin 1665–2021