There is a very good exhibition in City Hall at the moment called “The Story of the Capital”. As a mediator, it was interesting to read about an arbitration which occurred in 1527 concerning, among other things, the ordering of the water from the Dodder coming into the city. This is covered in a book called History of the City of Dublin: From the Earliest Accounts Vol. 1 By John Warburton, James Whitelaw, Robert Walsh.
I am sure a lot of people think Mediation\Arbitration is a recent occurrence, when in fact it has a very long history