Governor of Northern Ireland in the context of "Parliament of Northern Ireland"

The Executive Committee for Northern Ireland was the government of Northern Ireland created under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Generally known as either the Cabinet or the Government, the executive committee existed from 1922 to 1972. It exercised executive authority formally vested in the British monarch in relation to devolved matters.

Under the Act as originally enacted, the "Executive Committee for Northern Ireland" was an executive committee of the Privy Council of Ireland consisting of the ministers appointed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to head departments of state. Ministers so chosen did not have to be members of the Parliament of Northern Ireland but were required to become members within six months. The Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act, which came into force in December 1922, replaced the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council of Ireland with the Governor of Northern Ireland and Privy Council of Northern Ireland.

The prime minister of Northern Ireland was the head of the Government of Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. No such office was provided for in the Government of Ireland Act 1920; however, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as with governors-general in other Westminster systems such as in Canada, chose to appoint someone to head the executive even though no such post existed in statute law. The office-holder assumed the title prime minister to draw parallels with the prime minister of the United Kingdom. On the advice of the new prime minister, the lord lieutenant then created the Department of the Prime Minister. The office of Prime Minister of Northern Ireland was suspended in 1972 and then abolished in 1973, along with the contemporary government, when direct rule of Northern Ireland was transferred to London.

The Government of Ireland Act provided for the appointment of the executive committee of the Privy Council of Northern Ireland by the governor. No parliamentary vote was required. Nor, theoretically, was the executive committee and its prime minister responsible to the House of Commons of Northern Ireland. In reality the governor chose the leader of the party with a majority in the House to form a government. On each occasion this was the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party; such was the UUP's electoral dominance using both a simple plurality and for the first two elections, a proportional electoral system. All prime ministers of Northern Ireland were members of the Orange Order.

The Privy Council of Northern Ireland is a dormant privy council formerly advising the Governor of Northern Ireland in his role as viceroy of the British Crown, in particular in the exercise of the monarch's prerogative powers. The council was the successor within Northern Ireland of the Privy Council of Ireland, which offered advice to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

The Local Government (Boundaries) Act (Northern Ireland) 1971 (c. 9 (N.I.)) was an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, passed in 1971 to replace the previous system of local authorities established by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. The system was based on the recommendations of the Macrory Report, of June 1970, which presupposed the continued existence of the Government of Northern Ireland to act as a regional-level authority.

Northern Ireland was to be divided into twenty-six local government districts, each consisting of a number of wards. The act did not define the Districts exactly, but provided a list of 26 existing local government areas which would form the basis of the pattern. It then gave the Governor of Northern Ireland the power to appoint a Local Government Boundaries Commissioner who was to report with proposed names and boundaries not later than 30 June 1972.