The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick is a dormant British order of chivalry associated with Ireland. The Order was created in 1783 by George III at the request of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the 3rd Earl Temple. No knight of St Patrick has been created since 1936, and the last surviving knight, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, died in 1974.
About Order of St Patrick in brief
The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick is a dormant British order of chivalry associated with Ireland. The Order was created in 1783 by George III at the request of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the 3rd Earl Temple. No knight of St Patrick has been created since 1936, and the last surviving knight, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, died in 1974. Elizabeth II, however, remains the Sovereign of the Order, and one officer, the Ulster King of Arms, also survives. St Patrick is patron of the order; its motto is Quis separabit?, Latin for \”Who will separate?\”: an allusion to the Vulgate translation of Romans 8: 35, \”Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?\” The last living non-Royal member was the 9th Earl of Shaftesbury, who died in 1961, but has never formally become a member. The Constitution of Ireland of 1937 provides that titles of nobility shall not be conferred by the Government except with the prior approval of the Government of the Republic of Ireland. Experts are divided on whether this clause prohibits the awarding of membership to Irish citizens, but some suggest that the phrase implies hereditary peerages and honours, not lifetime honours such as knighthoods. The last non-royal member appointed to the Order was the 3th Duke of Abercorn in 1922, who served as the first Governor of Northern Ireland. When the Irish Free State left the United Kingdom in December of that same year, the Irish Executive Council under W. T. Cosgrave chose to make no further appointments to the order.
The British Government continued to entertain hopes for the Order’s revival as a pan-Irish institution, but it chose not to do so. Since then, only three people have been appointed to it, all members of the British Royal Family. It is likely that these appointments were considered possible because the Irish free state continued to recognise the British monarch as its official head of state. The Scottish equivalent is the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, dating in its present form from 1687. The order was founded a year after the grant of substantial autonomy to Ireland, as a means of rewarding political support in the Irish Parliament. The statutes of theorder restricted membership to men who were both knights and gentlemen, the latter being defined as having three generations of \”noblesse\” on both their father’s and mother’s side. One of the first knights was the 2nd Duke of Leinster, whose arms carry the same cross. In 1907, its insignia, known generally as the Irish Crown Jewels, were stolen from the Bedford Tower in Dublin Castle, shortly before a visit by King Edward VII. Their whereabouts remain a mystery. The Order of StPatrick earned international coverage when, in 1907, their insignia were stolen. A flag of this design was later incorporated into the Union Flag, but its association with St Patrick or with Ireland prior to its foundation is unclear, however.
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