Joined for the common purpose: The establishment of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland as an all-Ireland institution

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the emergence and endurance of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) as an all-Ireland body formed in the context of political and religious upheaval. It seeks to explore the motives for the north-south accounting alliance and the strategies adopted by the institute to negotiate the destructive and divisive forces of the wider socio-political environment. Design-methodology-approach A multitude of archival material is used to reconstruct the post-formation activities of the ICAI. Sources were drawn from: the ICAI archive in Dublin: Minute Books 1 and 2 covering the period from 1888 to 1921, Annual Reports, 1888-1922: minute books of other contemporary English accountancy bodies: contemporary professional press and census records stored at the National Library of Ireland in Dublin and the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast. Findings The early ICAI was an overwhelmingly Protestant-Unionist dominated body seeking to maintain Protestant hegemony at a time when the power of this class was being gradually eroded. Cognizant of the likely vulnerability of such a body existing in the catholic-nationalist south, and the need to strengthen such a position through a northern alliance, the ICAI from its inception was envisaged by its southern architects as an all Ireland institution. The fact that there were only a relatively small number of members acted as an inducement, particularly for Protestant members, to maintain unity. Originality-value The professionalization of accountancy in Ireland has been relatively under-researched and the debates about the diffusion of the English professional model have virtually bypassed it.