In the autumn of 1578 a watershed in the course of Tudor attempts to govern Ireland appeared to have been reached. The new government established in August constituted a direct repudiation of Sidney's methods. Thenceforth power was to be divided between the lord justice, the lord chancellor, the circuit judges advocated by Sir William Gerrard, and an autonomous president in Connacht. All of these were men of limited expectations. Priority was again given to the reform of the financial administration. Gilbert Gerrard's proposed reforms of the early 1560s were to be revived, and the new lord justice's instructions were based on those given to Sir William Skeffington almost fifty years before. Costs were to be curtailed and existing sources of revenue were to be better exploited, but no substantial increase in income was anticipated. In general, the instructions were loosely conceived. Wide discretionary powers were granted to the chief officers but no programme was underwritten. The new establishment was clearly an attempt to sever the administration of Irish affairs from the machinations of English domestic politics and to allow the appropriate processes of management to emerge from within. It was a major change of direction.

Sidney's departure, then, might well appear to mark the end of an era. A figure of extraordinary energy, his experience in Ireland had transcended a mere personal history, and had come to embody the systematic development of a general administrative practice.