The Dublin Gazette was the gazette, or official newspaper, of the Irish Executive, the British-controlled government in Ireland based at Dublin Castle, between 1705 and 1922. Like the London Gazette on which it was modelled, its strapline was "Published by Authority", and it published notices of government business, including proclamations, the granting of royal assent to bills, writs of election, appointments to public office, commissions and promotions in the armed forces, and awards of honours, as well as notices of insolvency, grants of arms or change of name. The most important notices were generally printed in both the Dublin and London gazettes.
After the 1921–1922 partition of Ireland, The Dublin Gazette was superseded in Northern Ireland by The Belfast Gazette and in the Irish Free State by Iris Oifigiúil.
History
In 1670, when Elisha Leighton became Chief Secretary for Ireland, he began a gazette in Dublin, but stopped after a few months because there was "so little news to 'stuff'" it. Notices relating to Ireland were occasionally published in the London Gazette, for example the statutory preparation for the 1679 Irish Parliament. In late 1688 James II fled London and was deposed as king; in 1689 he established a power base in Dublin, summoned an Irish Parliament in May and established a gazette. After James lost the Battle of the Boyne to William III, the office of King's Printer was restored to Andrew II Crooke, whose Dublin Intelligence claimed to be "published by authority" from 1690 to 1693. This newspaper's official status was marginal; Dublin Castle made little input and reprimanded it for publishing a "scandalous" notice from the Jacobite Sir Theobald Butler.
In 1705, under the Lord Lieutenancy of the 2nd Duke of Ormonde, a new Dublin Gazette was founded, although in its early days it was only two pages in length. The earliest surviving copy, dated 9 February 1706, is numbered as Issue 84 and is held in the Library of Trinity College Dublin (TCD). The Dublin Gazette'''s first printer was Edwin Sandys: a proclamation dated from Dublin Castle on 25 October 1705 notified the people of Ireland that "to prevent imposition by the publication of any false news, the Lords Justices directed the paper entitled The Dublin Gazette to be published by their authority, and had appointed their secretary, Edwin Sandys, to peruse the same constantly, before it be printed; and that Edwin Sandys, at the Custom House Printing-office, should be the printer and publisher thereof."
The first act of the Parliament of Ireland referring to the Gazette was in 1727, requiring the publication in "the Dublin-Gazette published by authority" of the details of each new inmate in debtors' prison, for the benefit of creditors. That year three different periodicals were using the title "Dublin Gazette": the authorised one printed and published by J. Gowan from 21 June; another by Christopher Dickson was titled the "Dublin Gazette" from 3 June until 4 July, when it was renamed Dickson's News-Letter and Flying Post; while Thomas Hume's Dublin Courant was in August 1726 renamed The Dublin Gazette: or, Weekly Courant, and continued until at least 1729.
The official status of the Gazette, through various changes of printer, is unclear prior to 21 August 1750, when the series of copies collected in the Chief Secretary's Office begins with issue No. 1. Until some decades later, ownership of the title and any profits remained with the printer. Until the 1770s, The Dublin Gazette had less of the character of an organ of government than its London counterpart, since it included foreign news reports and private advertisements besides official notices. However, on 18 March 1776, an Order in Council was made which banned it from publishing news not "guaranteed" by the government. A notice subsequently appeared in the Gazette on 13 April 1776, dated from Dublin Castle on 27 March, stating "that it is his majesty's royal pleasure, that for the future, the Dublin Gazette shall, as nearly as possible, be put upon the same footing as the London Gazette; and that it shall contain no other articles of news than such as are authorized by his majesty's government of this kingdom, or duly authenticated; and his excellency the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland has appointed Mr W. Roseingrave compiler of the said Dublin Gazette."Hammond 1953 p. 111