Executive Council of the Irish Free State

The Executive Council (Irish: Ard-Chomhairle) was the cabinet and de facto executive branch of government of the 1922-1937 Irish Free State. Formally, the role of the Executive Council was to 'aid and advise' the Governor-General who would exercise the executive authority on behalf of the King of Ireland. In practice, however, it was the Council that governed. The Executive Council included a prime minister called the President of the Executive Council and a deputy prime minister called the Vice-President. The Executive Council was nominated by Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas (parliament), and could be removed by a vote of no confidence in the chamber. Individual ministers could not be removed by the President of the Executive Council. Rather, the whole council had to be dismissed and reformed en bloc in order for a member to be dimissed. The Executive Council was succeed in the 1937, by the Government established under the new Constitution of Ireland.

List of Executive Councils

Dáil	Election/Year formed	Council	President	Vice President	Parties
3rd	1922	1st Executive Council	W.T. Cosgrave	Kevin O'Higgins	Sinn Féin (pro-Treaty wing)
4th	1923 election	2nd Executive Council	"	"	Cumann na nGaedheal
5th	1927 (Jun) election	3rd Executive Council	"	"	Cumann na nGaedheal
6th	1927 (Sept) election	4th Executive Council	"	Ernest Blythe	Cumann na nGaedheal
	1932	5th Executive Council	"	"	Cumann na nGaedheal
7th	1932 election	6th Executive Council	Eamon de Valera	Seán T. O'Kelly	Fianna Fáil
8th	1933 election	7th Executive Council	"	"	Fianna Fáil

See also

• Constitution of the Irish Free State
• Irish cabinets since 1919
• History of Ireland