Chief Secretary for Ireland in the context of Dublin Castle administration in Ireland

Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (/ˈbælfər, -fɔːr/; 25 July 1848 – 19 March 1930), was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the Lloyd George ministry, he issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917 on behalf of the cabinet, which supported a "home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, and later issued the Balfour Declaration of 1926 as Lord of the Privy Council, which announced a co-equal relationship between the United Kingdom and its Dominions, laying the groundwork for the Statute of Westminster 1931 which granted full independence to the former colonies.

Entering Parliament in 1874, Balfour achieved prominence as Chief Secretary for Ireland, in which position he suppressed agrarian unrest whilst taking measures against absentee landlords. He opposed Irish Home Rule, saying there could be no half-way house between Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom or becoming independent. From 1891 he led the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, serving under his uncle, Lord Salisbury, whose government won large majorities in 1895 and 1900. An esteemed debater, he was bored by the mundane tasks of party management.

The Dublin Castle administration was the central executive government of Ireland under English, and later British, rule from the Middle Ages until the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922. The name comes from Dublin Castle, which served as the administrative and ceremonial heart of British authority in Ireland. "Dublin Castle" is used metonymically to describe British rule in Ireland, particularly the executive and civil service that governed through the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and senior officials such as the Chief Secretary for Ireland and Under-Secretary for Ireland.

The administration operated alongside the Parliament of Ireland (which existed until 1801) and the Privy Council of Ireland, implementing policies and managing patronage, taxation, and the civil service. Over time, the Chief Secretary for Ireland became the key political manager, while the Lord Lieutenant largely served a ceremonial and representative role.

The Irish House of Commons (Irish: Teach na gComóntach, Teach na dTeachtaí) was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive franchise, similar to the unreformed House of Commons in contemporary Great Britain. Catholics were disqualified from sitting in the Irish parliament from 1691, even though they comprised the vast majority of the Irish population.

The Irish executive, known as the Dublin Castle administration, under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, was not answerable to the House of Commons but to the British government. However, the Chief Secretary for Ireland was usually a member of the Irish parliament. In the Commons, business was presided over by the Speaker.

Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens (1 March 1753 – 19 February 1839), was a British diplomat. He was Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia from 1783 to 1788, appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland and a member of the Privy Council (Great Britain & Ireland) in 1787, serving in the former position until 1789. He was Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain from 1790 to 1794.

He was a friend of explorer George Vancouver, who named Mount St. Helens in what is now the U.S. state of Washington after him.

Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry (18 June 1769 – 12 August 1822), usually known as Lord Castlereagh, derived from the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh (UK: /ˈkɑːsəlreɪ/ KAH-səl-ray) by which he was styled from 1796 to 1821, was an Irish-born British statesman and politician. As secretary to the Viceroy in Ireland, he worked to suppress the Rebellion of 1798 and to secure passage in 1800 of the Irish Act of Union. As the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom from 1812, he was central to the management of the coalition that defeated Napoleon, and was British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna. In the post-war government of Lord Liverpool, Castlereagh was seen to support harsh measures against agitation for reform, and he ended his life an isolated and unpopular figure.

Early in his career in Ireland, and following a visit to revolutionary France, Castlereagh recoiled from the democratic politics of his Presbyterian constituents in Ulster. Crossing the floor of the Irish House of Commons in support of the government, he took a leading role in detaining members of the republican conspiracy, the United Irishmen, his former political associates among them. After the 1798 Rebellion, as Chief Secretary for Ireland he pushed the Act of Union through the Irish Parliament. However, unable to overcome the resistance of King George III to the Catholic Emancipation that they believed should have accompanied the creation of a United Kingdom, both he and Prime Minister William Pitt resigned.

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (UK: /lɛfˈtɛnənt/), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdom of Ireland (1541–1800) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922). The office, under its various names, was often more generally known as the Viceroy, and his wife was known as the vicereine. The government of Ireland in practice was usually in the hands of the Lord Deputy up to the 17th century, and later of the Chief Secretary for Ireland.

St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth (Irish: Coláiste Naoimh Phádraig, Maigh Nuad), is a pontifical Catholic university in the town of Maynooth near Dublin, Ireland. The college and national seminary on its grounds are often referred to as Maynooth College.

The college was officially established as the Royal College of St Patrick by Maynooth College Act 1795. Thomas Pelham, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, introduced a bill for the foundation of a Catholic college, and this was enacted by parliament. It was opened to hold up to 500 students for the Catholic priesthood of whom up to 90 would be ordained each year, and was once the largest seminary in the world.