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The Constitution of the Irish Free State was the founding legal document of the Irish Free State of 1922–1937. It was enacted with the adoption of the Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922, of which it formed a part. In 1937 it was replaced by the modern Constitution of Ireland. The Constitution of the Irish Free State established the first independent Irish state to be recognised both by the British government and internationally. As originally enacted, the constitution was firmly shaped by the requirements of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that had been negotiated between the British government and Irish leaders in 1921. However a series of amendments after its adoption gradually removed many of those provisions that were required by the Treaty. The Free State constitution established a parliamentary system of government under a form of constitutional monarchy and contained guarantees of certain fundamental rights. It was originally intended that the constitution would be a rigid document that, after an initial period, could be amended only by referendum. However, in practice, during the entire period of the Irish Free State the constitution could be amended by a simple Act of the Oireachtas (parliament).
[edit] OriginsIrish nationalists who fought the War of Independence believed themselves to be fighting on behalf of a newly formed state called the Irish Republic. The Irish Republic had its own president, an elected assembly called Dáil Éireann, and a judicial system in the form of the Dáil courts. However this self-proclaimed republic was recognised neither by the British government nor any other state. In the negotiations leading to the Anglo-Irish Treaty the British government insisted that the new Irish state must remain within the Commonwealth and not be a republic. Furthermore, while the Irish Republic had a constitution, of sorts, in the form of the Dáil Constitution, this was a very brief document and had been intended to be only provisional. It was therefore clear, when, in 1921, the British government agreed to the creation of a largely independent Irish state, that a new constitution was needed. The Anglo-Irish Treaty made a number of requirements of the new constitution. Among these were that:
[edit] Constitution Committee The Constitution of the Irish Free State was drafted by a committee under the nominal chairmanship of Michael Collins. Collins attended only the first meeting of the Committee, and Darrell Figgis, the vice-Chairman became acting Chair. The committee produced three draft texts, designated A, B and C. A was signed by Figgis, James McNeill and John O’Byrne. B was signed by James G. Douglas, C.J. France and Hugh Kennedy and it differed substantially from A only in proposals regarding the Executive.[1] This difference was intended by Douglas to permit the Anti-treaty faction a say in the final proposed constitution before its submission to the British Government. As such it was, according to Douglas, an attempt to ameliorate the pro- and anti-Treaty split. Draft C was the most novel of the three. It was signed by Alfred O'Rahilly and James Murnaghan, and provided for the possibility of representation for the people of the northern counties in the Dáil in the event of that area opting out of the proposed Free State.[2] [edit] Method of adoptionThe constitution was adopted by means of a complex process involving both the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Irish Dáil. The method used was complicated by the fact that the Free State was seceding from the United Kingdom, that the British wished to incorporate a mechanism whereby the new constitution would be subordinate to the Anglo-Irish Treaty and that the new constitution had to be legitimate both in British law and within the constitutional theory of Irish nationalists. A three stage process was followed, involving
To begin with elections were held for the Third Dáil, which was to sit as an Irish constituent assembly for the enactment of the constitution. This assembly enacted the Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922 on 25 October of that year. This Irish Act was to be the overall fundamental law of the new state and incorporated the document known more specifically as the Constitution of the Irish Free State in its first schedule. The UK Parliament then enacted the similarly titled Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 on 5 December. This merely provided that the Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922 would have the force of law. The Irish Act was reproduced as a whole as a schedule to the British law. Both the law passed by the British parliament, and the Act of the Constituent Assembly, provided that the new constitution would be brought into force by a royal proclamation. The constitution came into force on 6 December. On this date the members of the Dáil took the Oath of Allegiance and nominated the new cabinet provided for by the constitution, the Executive Council. The means by which the constitution was adopted resembled, in some respects, the way in which constitutions were granted to other Commonwealth nations. For example the current Constitution of Australia was adopted by the British Parliament–it is a schedule to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900. The law adopted in 1922 at Westminster had the structure of a Russian doll, containing within it the entire text of the Irish Act, which in turn contained within it the whole text of the new constitution. [edit] Incorporation of the TreatyThe Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922 contained two schedules. One schedule contained the new constitution and the other the Anglo-Irish Treaty. As adopted in 1922, Section 2 of the Act provided that the treaty took precedence over the constitution and laws of the Irish Free State. Furthermore, both Section 2 of the Act and Article 50 of the constitution provided that no amendment of the constitution would be admissible if it violated the treaty. Therefore, under the British constitutional law in force in 1922, the Irish Free State had no authority to escape the requirements of Anglo-Irish Treaty. It was unclear that the Oireachtas could amend the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922 and, while the Free State could amend the constitution itself, any such amendment had to comply with the Treaty. This was changed by the enactment, by the British Parliament, of the Statute of Westminster in 1931. This Act was designed to increase the autonomy of all British dominions and granted the Free State the power to alter Irish laws in any way it chose. The Free State soon used this new freedom to enact the Constitution (Removal of Oath) Act 1933. Aside from abolishing the Oath of Allegiance, a requirement of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Act repealed those provisions both of the constitution proper and of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922 that required that the Free State's constitution and law comply with the Treaty. This act was followed soon after by others dismantling provisions of the constitution that had been dictated by the Treaty. [edit] Main provisions[edit] StructureAs adopted, the constitution proper consisted of 83 articles, coming to approximately 7,600 words. The Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922 consisted of only four short sections but was a far longer document because, as noted above, it included as schedules the full text of both the constitution proper and the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The articles of the constitution proper were not formally subdivided into chapters or headings, save for the final ten provisions which came under the title of Transitory Provisions. However, divided by subject matter the articles of the constitution broke down roughly as follows:
[edit] PreambleThe constitution itself had no preamble. However the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922 began with the following words:
[edit] Characteristics of the state
[edit] Individual rightsUnlike the then constitutions of Australia and Canada, the constitution included a bill of rights, in Articles 6-10. Rights were also protected by a number of provisions contained in other articles.
[edit] Organs of governmentThe constitution provided for a parliamentary system of government. The legislature was called the Oireachtas and had two houses: the Dáil Éireann was established as the lower house, and Seanad Éireann as the senate or upper house. However the Seanad had only limited powers of delay so it was the Dáil that was the dominant house. The executive branch consisted, in practice, of a cabinet called the Executive Council headed by a prime minister, the President of the Executive Council. The cabinet was chosen by the Dáil, which could also dismiss it by a vote of no confidence. The constitution provided that the judiciary would consist of the Supreme Court, the High Court, and any lower courts established by law. The head of state was the King, represented by a Governor-General. Notionally the Governor-General was responsible for appointing and dismissing the cabinet, and could veto laws, but, in accordance with constitutional convention, he exercised merely a ceremonial role. Both the senate and the office of Governor-General were abolished by constitutional amendments during the Free State's final days. [edit] Initiative and referendumAs originally adopted the constitution contained (in Articles 47, 48 and 50) innovative provisions for direct democracy but, owing to constitutional amendments, these provisions were never permitted to come into effect. The provisions stated that the referendum and initiative would operate on the same franchise as the Dáil; this was universal suffrage beginning at the age of 21. The constitution provided for three forms of direct democracy:
The Achilles' heel of the direct democracy provisions was contained in Article 50 which provided that, for eight years after the constitution came into force, the Oireachtas could amend the constitution without a referendum. As interpreted by the courts, this even included the power to amend the article itself and extend this period. The Oireachtas did not adopt legislation providing for the initiative within the two years stipulated by the constitution and, eventually, a petition of 96,000 signature was gathered by the opposition in order to trigger a referendum forcing the Oireachtas to introduce an initiative process. The Oireachtas responded by removing all provisions for direct democracy from the constitution, save for the requirement that, once the eight year transitional period had passed, it would be necessary to hold referendums on all constitutional amendments. Then in 1929 the Oireachtas extended this period to sixteen years. This meant that, by the time the constitution was replaced in 1937, the provisions for the constitutional referendum had still not come into force. [edit] Amendments[edit] Method of amendment The procedure for adopting constitutional amendments was laid out in Article 50. This foresaw that amendments would first be approved by both houses of the Oireachtas, then submitted to a referendum, and finally receive the royal assent from the Governor-General. However, as already noted, the requirement for a referendum was postponed by the Oireachtas so that during the entire period of the Irish Free State the constitution could be amended by means of an ordinary law. As noted above it was originally provided that any amendments that violated the Anglo-Irish Treaty would be inadmissible, but this sole restriction was removed in 1933. The Oireachtas readily used its powers of amendment so that, during the fifteen years of the constitution's operation, 25 formal constitutional amendments were made. This can be contrasted with the fact that, during its first sixty years, the current Constitution of Ireland was amended only sixteen times. In addition to the adoption of formal constitutional amendments, the courts ruled that the Oireachtas could also implicitly amend the constitution. When the Oireachtas adopted the Public Safety Act 1927, which affected civil rights, it included a section requiring that should the Act be found to be unconstitutional it would be treated as a constitutional amendment. Section 3 of the Act provided that:
In the Attorney General v. McBride (1928) it was ruled that this kind of section was unnecessary because even if a law did not contain such a provision it could be interpreted as a tacit amendment of the constitution anyway, owing to the doctrine of implied repeal. This meant that, in addition to formal amendments, almost any Act of the Oireachtas could be considered an amendment of the constitution. The long process of ad hoc amendment that occurred until 1937 meant that, by the time it was replaced the constitution had become, according President Eamon de Valera, a "tattered and torn affair" [3]. While Article 50 provided for the amendment of the constitution proper, there was no explicit provision in any law for the amendment of the Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922. Some jurists therefore maintained that the Oireachtas did not have power to amend the Act; rather, if it were possible to alter the law at all, it might be necessary to ask the British Parliament to do so, or to elect another constituent assembly. Chief Justice Kennedy was among those who took the view that the Act could not be altered by the Oireachtas. Nonetheless changes were eventually made to the Act, when the Oireachtas passed the Constitution (Removal of Oath) Act 1933, and when it was repealed in its entirety with the adoption of the 1937 constitution. When the new constitution was drafted lessons had been learned from the Free State constitution. It too granted the Oireachtas a temporary power to make constitutional amendments by ordinary law, but, unlike the Free State constitution, it expressly forbid the legislature from using this power to extend the transitional period. Article 46 of the new constitution required that constitutional amendments be approved by referendum while Article 51 of the Transitory Provisions suspended this requirement for an initial three years (beginning when the first President assumed office). However Article 46 forbid the legislature from amending either itself or Article 51. In the event the Oireachtas used its transitional power only twice, when it adopted the First Amendment and the Second Amendment. The new constitution then settled down and was not amended again for thirty years. Another difference from the Free State constitution is that the modern constitution requires constitutional amendments to be expressly identified as such. Every amendment must have the long title "An Act to amend the Constitution". [edit] Subjects of amendmentsSome amendments made minor changes, such as removing the requirement that elections occur on a public holiday, but others were more radical. These included extending the term of the Dáil in 1927, the abolition of the initiative and of direct elections to the Senate in 1928, extending the period during which the Oireachtas could amend the constitution in 1928, and the introduction of draconian provisions for trial by military tribunals in 1931. From 1933 onwards a series of further amendments were made that gradually dismantled the Treaty settlement by, for example, abolishing the Oath of Allegiance and the office of Governor-General. Because it tried to obstruct this process the Senate was abolished in 1936. [edit] List of amendmentsThe titles given to the amendments below are in an abbreviated form. The full title of Amendment No.1 was the Constitution (Amendment No. 1) Act 1925, Amendment No. 2 was the Constitution (Amendment No. 2) Act 1927, and so forth. The only amendment not to follow this pattern was the Constitution (Removal of Oath) Act 1933. It can be seen that the official numbering of constitutional amendments did not necessarily coincide with the order in which they were adopted. Equally confusing is the fact that there were formally no Amendments No. 18, 19 or 25.
[edit] Civil rights in practiceThe constitution empowered the courts to strike down laws they found to be unconstitutional. However judicial review of legislation was made largely meaningless by the ease with which the Oireachtas could alter the constitution. Furthermore, as the state had only recently seceded from the UK, Irish judges were trained in British jurisprudence. To this tradition, founded on deference to the legislature and parliamentary sovereignty, constitutional review was an alien concept. This meant that despite the adoption of a new, more rigid constitution in 1937, constitutional review did not become a significant feature of Irish jurisprudence until the 1960s. During the entire period of the Free State, only two pieces of legislation were declared by the courts to be unconstitutional. The Free State had significant problems with public order in early years. It was founded during the Irish Civil War which did not come to an end until May 1923, and thereafter there were continuing problems of public disorder and subversive activities by the IRA. This situation led to an erosion of civil rights in the new state. During the Civil War a law provided the death penalty for the crime of unlawful possession of a firearm, and more than seventy people were executed for the offence. Draconian measures continued to be used after the war's conclusion; these included internment of former rebels and the punishment of flogging for arson and armed robbery, introduced in 1924. In 1931, acting in response to IRA violence, the Oireachtas adopted Amendment No. 17 of the constitution. This added a new draconian set of provisions called Article 2A to the constitution. Article 2A was very large, consisting of five parts and 34 sections. Among other provisions it granted powers of arrest, detention and trial of people before military tribunals not bound by normal rules of evidence, despite the fact that many crimes triable before the tribunals carried a mandatory death sentence. In order to protect itself from being undermined by the courts, Article 2A was drafted to state that it took precedence over all other provisions of the constitution (save Article 1). The provisions for military tribunals were challenged in 1935 in the case of The State (Ryan) v. Lennon. In this case the majority of the Supreme Court reluctantly held that, because Amendment No. 17 had been duly adopted in accordance with the correct procedure, it was not open to the judges to strike it down. However Chief Justice Kennedy disagreed, arguing, in a dissenting opinion, that the Article 2A violated natural law. [edit] BibliographyDouglas, James G. ed. J. Anthony Gaughan Memoirs of Senator James G. Douglas- Concerned Citizen: UCD Press : 1998 : ISBN 9781900621199 [edit] Notes[edit] External links
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