Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland

The chief justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland was the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, which was known in its early years as the Court of Common Bench, or simply as "the Bench", or "the Dublin bench". It was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland, and was a mirror of the Court of Common Pleas in England. The Court of Common Pleas was one of the "four courts" which sat in the building in Dublin which is still known as the Four Courts, apart from a period in the fourteenth century when it relocated to Carlow, which was thought, wrongly as it turned out, to be both more central and more secure for the rulers of Norman Ireland.

According to Francis Elrington Ball, the court was fully operational by 1276. It was staffed by the chief justice, of whom Robert Bagod was the first, and two or three associate justices.^[1] The Court functioned until the passing of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (Ireland) 1877 when it was merged into the new High Court of Justice in Ireland. The last Chief Justice of the Common Pleas for Ireland, Sir Michael Morris, continued to hold the title until 1887, when he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland.