The Honourable The Irish Society

The Honourable The Irish Society^{[note 1]} is a consortium of livery companies of the City of London established during the Plantation of Ulster to colonise County Londonderry. It was created in 1609 within the City of London Corporation,^[1] and incorporated in 1613 by royal charter of James I. In its first decades the society rebuilt the city of Derry and town of Coleraine, and for centuries it owned property and fishing rights near both towns. Some of the society's profits were used to develop the economy and infrastructure of the area, while some was returned to the London investors, and some used for charitable work.

The society remains in existence as a "relatively small grant-giving charitable body",^[2] registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales for "the promotion of any exclusively charitable purposes for the benefit of the community of the County of Londonderry and neighbouring areas".^[2][3] In 2020 it had six employees and disbursed £580,000 in grants.^[3] Much of its funding derives from its remaining property, including the walls of Derry, a tourist attraction and heritage site, and fisheries on the River Bann.^[2]

The society is based in the City of London, with a "Representative" resident in Coleraine.^[2] Its legal constitution is as a Court of "honest and discreet citizens of London" chaired by a Governor. The Governor is traditionally a former Lord Mayor of London, and the City's Court of Common Council elects the Court of the Irish Society, whose size was reduced in 2013 from "six and twenty" to 15.^[4]

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