Constitution of Ireland

The Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of Ireland. It asserts the national sovereignty of the Irish people. It guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected non-executive president, a bicameral parliament, a separation of powers and judicial review.
It is the second constitution of the Irish state since independence, replacing the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State. It came into force on 29 December 1937 following a statewide plebiscite held on 1 July 1937. The Constitution may be amended solely by a national referendum. It is the longest continually operating republican constitution within the European Union.

Background

The Constitution of Ireland replaced the Constitution of the Irish Free State, which had been in effect since the independence, as a dominion, of the Irish state from the United Kingdom on 6 December 1922. There were two main motivations for replacing the constitution in 1937. Firstly, the Statute of Westminster 1931 granted parliamentary autonomy to the six British Dominions within a British Commonwealth of Nations. This had the effect of making the dominions sovereign nations in their own right. The Irish Free State constitution of 1922 was, in the eyes of many, associated with the controversial Anglo-Irish Treaty. The anti-treaty faction, who opposed the treaty initially by force of arms, was so opposed to the institutions of the new Irish Free State that it initially took an abstentionist line toward them, boycotting them altogether. However, the largest element of this faction became convinced that abstentionism could not be maintained forever. This element, led by Éamon de Valera, formed the Fianna Fáil party in 1926, which entered into government following the 1932 general election.
After 1932, under the provisions of the Statute of Westminster, some of the articles of the original Constitution which were required by the Anglo-Irish Treaty were dismantled by acts of the Oireachtas of the Irish Free State. Such amendments removed references to the Oath of Allegiance, appeals to the United Kingdom's Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the British Crown and the governor-general. The sudden abdication of Edward VIII in December 1936 was quickly used to redefine the royal connection. Nevertheless, the Fianna Fáil government still desired to replace the constitutional document they saw as having been imposed by the British government in 1922.
The second motive for replacing the original constitution was primarily symbolic. De Valera wanted to put an Irish stamp on the institutions of government, and chose to do this in particular through the use of Irish language nomenclature.

Drafting process

De Valera personally supervised the writing of the Constitution. It was drafted initially by John Hearne, legal adviser to the Department of External Affairs. It was translated into Irish over a number of drafts by a group headed by Micheál Ó Gríobhtha, who worked in the Irish Department of Education. De Valera served as his own external affairs minister, hence the use of the department's legal advisor, with whom he had previously worked closely, as opposed to the attorney general or someone from the Department of the President of the Executive Council. He also received significant input from John Charles McQuaid, the then president of Blackrock College, on religious, educational, family and social welfare issues. McQuaid later became, in 1940, the Catholic archbishop of Dublin. Other religious leaders who were consulted were Archbishop Edward Byrne, Archbishop John Gregg, William Massey and James Irwin.
There are a number of instances where the texts in English and Irish clash, a potential dilemma which the Constitution resolves by favouring the Irish text even though English is more commonly used in the official sphere.
A draft of the constitution was presented personally to the Vatican for review and comment on two occasions by the department head at external relations, Joseph P. Walsh. Prior to its tabling in Dáil Éireann and presentation to the Irish electorate in a plebiscite, Vatican secretary of state Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, said of the final amended draft: "We do not approve, neither do we disapprove; We shall maintain silence." The quid pro quo for this indulgence of the Catholic Church's interests in Ireland was the degree of respectability which it conferred on De Valera's formerly denounced republican faction and its reputation as the 'semi-constitutional' political wing of the 'irregular' anti-treaty forces.
During the Great Depression, as social polarisation generated campaigns and strikes, Catholic social jurists aimed to forestall class conflict. Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and clericalist advisors such as John Charles McQuaid considered constitutional provisions to incorporate land redistribution, credit system regulation, and welfare rights. Late in the drafting process, however, de Valera re-wrote these initially robust socio-economic rights as non-binding 'directive principles', primarily to satisfy the Department of Finance's preferences for minimal state spending. In line with Ireland's banks and grazier farming interests, the final wording thus preserved the state's existing currency and cattle trading relations with the United Kingdom.

Adoption

The text of the draft constitution, with minor amendments, was approved on 14 June 1937 by Dáil Éireann.
The draft constitution was then put to a plebiscite on 1 July 1937, when it was passed by a plurality. 56% of voters were in favour, comprising 38.6% of the whole electorate. The constitution came into force on 29 December 1937 and, to mark the occasion, the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs issued two commemorative stamps on that date.
Among the groups who opposed the constitution were supporters of Fine Gael and the Labour Party, Unionists, and some independents and feminists. The question put to voters was "Do you approve of the Draft Constitution which is the subject of this plebiscite?".

Response

When the draft new constitution was published, the Irish Independent described it as one of de Valera's "finest tributes to his predecessors". The Irish Times criticised the constitution's assertion of a territorial claim on Northern Ireland, and the absence in its text of any reference to the British Commonwealth. The London-based Daily Telegraph included in its criticism the special position assigned to the Church of Rome under the new constitution. The Sunday Times concluded it would only help to "perpetuate division" between Dublin and Belfast. The Irish Catholic concluded it was a "noble document in harmony with papal teachings".
When the new constitution was enacted, the British government, according to The New York Times, "contented itself with a legalistic protest". Its protest took the form of a communiqué on 30 December 1937, in which the British stated:
The other governments of the British Commonwealth countries chose to continue to regard Ireland as a member of the British Commonwealth. A proposal by the Northern Ireland government that Northern Ireland be renamed "Ulster" in response to the new Irish constitution was aborted after it was determined that this would require Westminster legislation.
The Irish government received a message of goodwill from 268 United States congressmen, including eight senators. The signatories expressed "their ardent congratulations on the birth of the State of Ireland and the consequent coming into effect of the new constitution", adding that "We regard the adoption of the new constitution and the emergence of the State of Ireland as events of the utmost importance."
Feminists such as Hannah Sheehy Skeffington claimed that certain articles threatened their rights as citizens and as workers. Article 41.2, for example, equated womanhood with motherhood and further specified a woman's 'life within the home'. The Women Graduates' Association, the Joint Committee of Women's Societies and Social Workers, together with the Irish Women Workers' Union mobilised a two-month campaign seeking the provisions' amendment or deletion.
The Republican Congress also critiqued the constitution's "stone-age conception of womanhood". Writing in the Irish Democrat, Peadar O'Donnell and Frank Ryan condemned the 1937 Constitution for upholding private property as a sacred, 'natural right' and declaring that capitalism was 'something ordained by Providence forever, amen!' The Congress further opposed the Roman Catholic Church's position as a 'State or semi-State church' in violation of republican principles and an offence to Protestants throughout the island. The 'Roman Catholic Bishops of the South', O'Donnell claimed, now functioned as 'the watchdogs of the private property classes'.

Main provisions

The official text of the Constitution consists of a preamble, numbered articles arranged under headings, and a final dedication. Its overall length is approximately 16,000 words.

Heading		Notes
The Nation	1–3	-
The State	4–11
The President	12–14
The National Parliament	15–27
The Government	28
Local Government	28A	Inserted in 1999
International Relations	29
The Attorney General	30
The Council of State	31–32
The Comptroller and Auditor General	33
The Courts	34–37
Trial of Offences	38–39
Fundamental Rights	40–44	Article 42A was inserted in 2012
Directive Principles of Social Policy	45	Not justiciable
Amendment of the Constitution	46
The Referendum	47
Repeal of Constitution of Saorstát Éireann and Continuance of Laws	48–50
Transitory Provisions	51–64	Omitted from officially published texts. Article 64 was added in 2013