5 Pounds

The Currency Commission Ireland was replaced by the Central Bank of Ireland under the Central Bank Act of 1942, which is why this series has such a compressed issue window — notes bearing the Commission's name were still being produced right up to the institutional handover. Waterlow & Sons had held the Irish printing contract since the original Consolidated Banknote series launched in 1928, a relationship built partly on the practical need to produce secure currency outside the jurisdiction of British clearing banks during a politically sensitive period.

Brennan as Currency Commissioner was the architect of the 1927 Currency Act that pegged the Irish pound at parity with sterling — a policy he defended long after many economists had turned against it.