Dublin Corporation
Dublin Corporation, known by generations of Dubliners simply as The Corpo, is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660–1661, even more significantly in 1840, it was modernised on 1 January 2002, as part of a general reform of local government in Ireland, and since then is known as Dublin City Council. This article deals with the history of municipal government in Dublin up to 31 December 2001.
The long form of its name was The Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the City of Dublin.
History
Dublin Corporation was established under the Anglo-Normans in the reign of Henry II of England in the 12th century.Two-chamber corporation
For centuries it was a two-chamber body, made up of an upper house of 24 aldermen, who elected the Lord Mayor of Dublin from their number, and a lower house, known as the "sheriffs and commons", consisting of up to 48 sheriffs peers and 96 representatives of the Guilds of the City of Dublin with 31 of those seats controlled by the Merchants' Guild.The business of the corporation was transacted at The Tholsel at four quarterly assemblies while extraordinary assemblies were held at post assemblies.
19th-century reform
The modern Dublin Corporation was restructured by late 19th-century and 20th-century legislation, particularly, the Municipal Corporations Act 1840, with the elected body reduced to a single chamber Dublin City Council, presided over by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, an office first instituted but not filled by King Charles I and reconstituted following the Restoration of the Crown by King Charles II.Queen Victoria refused to visit Ireland for a number of years, partly in protest at Dublin Corporation's decision not to congratulate her son, Prince Albert Edward, The Prince of Wales, on both his marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark and on the birth of the royal couple's oldest son, Prince Albert Victor.