James Butler, Third Earl of Ormond and Lord Justice of Ireland, headed Richard II's Council in Ireland in the late fourteenth century. These records of the Council are a particularly important source for Irish administrative history, owing to the destruction of a considerable portion of Irish public records over the centuries. The 214 items primarily consist of petitions to the Council and council replies. The roll was calendared, edited and translated from the original French by James Graves (1815–86), a founding father of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, and first published in the Rolls Series in 1877. An appendix of twelve further items (in Latin, French and English) is included, while an appendix to the introduction includes a translation of ordinances of a later great council held by Thomas Fitzgerald, Seventh Earl of Kildare, in 1455.