This work describes in general terms the duties and organization of Irish government departments functioning between the Union and the outbreak of war in 1914. Though the century rendered allegiance to laissez-faire, paradoxically it was a period when the state was steadily extending its sphere of action and so created a rationally planned administrative system providing itself with an instrument for intervention in political and economic life.

This work describes in general terms the duties and organization of Irish government departments functioning between the Union and the outbreak of war in 1914. Though the century rendered allegiance to laissez-faire, paradoxically it was a period when the state was steadily extending its sphere of action and so created a rationally planned administrative system providing itself with an instrument for intervention in political and economic life.