Ruling Ireland with No Central Government

The chiefs and lords, in fact, enjoyed their freedom from control. During all this period they ruled Ireland unchecked by any central Government, and they did not desire to be
therwise.

Lords and chiefs, great and small, Irish and Norman, overned their clans or followers and fought their rivals without any preference. To a few of the great Norman lords, of course, the office of  theLord Deputy with the control of the Dublin officials was an asset which they were always ambitious to secure.

But, apart from its value as a personal chattel, they paid little respect to the position, and a Lord Deputy broke the laws against fosterage and Irish alliances and ” coyne and livery ” and private wars as easily as if he were not the King’s representative. 

On the other hand, his viceregal position never brought him’immunity from war, capture, or imprisonment, at the hands of another nominal subject of the King. No King’s sheriff and no King’s judge now dreamt of collecting taxes or administering law in the lands which English Kings had ” granted ” to their followers.