, together with the
Guildhall. Both were constructed by the Irish Society The
Nine Years' War between
Gaelic Irish chiefs and the
Dublin Castle administration of the
Kingdom of Ireland ended in Gaelic defeat 1603, and the
Flight of the Earls in 1607 left northwest Ulster open to colonisation. In planning the plantation of Ulster, King James I set out to defend against a future attack from within or without. In his survey, he found that the town of Derry could become either a great asset of control over the
River Foyle and
Lough Swilly, or it could become an inviting back door if the people of the area were against him. He pressured the guilds of the City of London to fund the resettlement of the area, including the building of a new walled city, and the result was the creation of the society. The
Virginia Company of London had been created similarly in 1606 to colonise North America. The city of Derry was renamed Londonderry in recognition of the London origin of the Irish Society.
County Coleraine was enlarged and renamed County Londonderry after its new
county town. The rural area of the county was subdivided between the
Great Twelve livery companies, while the towns and environs of Londonderry and Coleraine were retained by the Irish Society. The society was sequestrated in 1630, fined for non-performance in 1635, and suppressed in 1637; it was revived by
Oliver Cromwell in 1650 and again after the
Restoration by Londonderry's 1662 royal charter. A dispute with the
Bishop of Derry over fishing rights was appealed from the
Irish House of Lords to the
English House of Lords, in a controversial move later sanctioned by the
Declaratory Act 1719 (
6 Geo. 1. c. 5). A
private act of the
Parliament of Ireland was also passed in 1704 to resolve the dispute. During the 17th and 18th centuries four of the twelve livery companies sold their estates, the Irish Society requiring in each case a bond of indemnity. Until the
Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840 (
3 & 4 Vict. c. 108), the society had an influence on the
municipal corporations of Derry and Coleraine, with right of appointment of some officials and right of veto over some classes of decision. The society also had some disputes with the corporations over ownership and development of the property. Profits from the society's commercial endeavours were redistributed to the livery companies until a
lawsuit brought by the
Skinners' Company in 1832 claiming a greater share of this revenue. The case was
decided by the House of Lords in 1845, ruling that the society held its property in
trust, not for the livery companies, but for "public purposes". Since then, its profits have been used entirely for charitable ends. The 1854
Royal Commission on the City of London recommended that the Irish Society be abolished and its property transferred to a new charitable trust, unconnected to the London Corporation, with trustees nominated by the
Lord Chancellor of Ireland. While the companies' rural estates were sold to tenants under the
Irish Land Acts after 1870, the Irish Society's urban property was exempt from the acts. The Irish Society financed the building of
Derry's Guildhall; work started in 1887 and it was opened in July 1890, having cost £19,000. In 1923 the society sold most of its remaining property in Derry city to the
Government of Northern Ireland for £500,000. By the 21st century its property portfolio was "much reduced". == Notes ==