The state known today asIreland is the successor state to theIrish Free State, which existed from December 1922 to December 1937. At its foundation, the Irish Free State was, in accordance with itsconstitution and the terms of theAnglo-Irish Treaty, governed as aconstitutional monarchy in theBritish Commonwealth with theBritish monarch as head of state. The monarch was represented in the Irish Free State by thegovernor-general, who performed most of the monarch's duties based on theadvice of elected Irish officials.
TheStatute of Westminster, passed in 1931, granted expanded sovereignty to thedominions of the British Commonwealth, and permitted the Irish state to amend its constitution and legislate outside the terms of the Treaty. TheExecutive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936, enacted in response to theabdication of Edward VIII, removed the role of the monarch for all internal purposes, leaving him only a few formal duties in foreign relations as a "symbol of cooperation" with other Commonwealth nations. TheConstitution of Ireland, which took effect in December 1937, established the position ofpresident of Ireland, with the office first filled in June 1938, but the monarch retained his role in foreign affairs, leaving open the question of which of the two figures was the formalhead of state.The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 ended the statutory position of the British monarch for external purposes and assigned those duties to the president, taking effect in April 1949, from which point Ireland was inarguably a republic.
TheAnglo-Irish Treaty was agreed upon to end the 1919–1921Irish War of Independence fought between Irish revolutionaries who favored anIrish Republic and theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The treaty provided for theIrish Free State, which excluded Northern Ireland, as an autonomous and self-governingdominion of the British Empire, with theBritish monarch ashead of state, in the same manner as in Canada and Australia.[1] The treaty also mandated that members of thenew Irish parliament would have to take anoath of allegiance that promised fidelity toGeorge V and his heirs.
The disestablishment of the Irish Republic declared in 1919, the imposition of even a constitutional monarchy, and the continued ties to Great Britain were particularly contentious for many Irish nationalists.[2] Even the Treaty's supporters viewed it as a compromise imposed on the Irish by their inability to achieve full independence through military means:Michael Collins, the republican leader who had led the Irish negotiating team, argued that it gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire and develop, but the freedom to achieve freedom."
The Treaty was fiercely debated in the Second Dáil, the Irish Republic's revolutionary parliament.Éamon de Valera,the Republic's President, opposed the proposed dominion status for Ireland; instead, he advocated for a relationship he calledexternal association, under which Ireland would be "associated" with the rest of the British Empire and would "recognise His Britannic Majesty as head of the Association" – but not as Ireland's King or head of state.[3]
Nevertheless, the Dáilnarrowly approved the treaty, and de Valera resigned in protest.[4] Pro-Treaty forces won the ensuingelection andcivil war, and the Free State's new constitution incorporated the monarchial elements mandated by the Treaty.
| Monarchy ofthe Irish Free State | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Details | |
| Style | His Majesty |
| First monarch | George V |
| Last monarch | George VI |
| Formation | 6 December 1922 |
| Abolition | 29 December 1937 |
The new Irish Free State thus established was a form of constitutional monarchy, aDominion with the same monarch as the United Kingdom and other states within theBritish Empire. Under its constitution, the King had functions that included the exercise of executive authority of the state, the appointment of thecabinet, the dissolution of the legislature, and the promulgation of laws. However, all of these were delegated to a representative called theGovernor-General of the Irish Free State. The representative's title was not actually specified in the Treaty, and Collins considered a number of alternatives, includingCommissioner of the British Commonwealth[5] andPresident of Ireland.[6] However, the Free State government ultimately settled ongovernor-general because it was the same title used by the corresponding officials in other Dominions. The office'sIrish language title wasSeanascal,[7] meaning "high steward" or "seneschal",[8] which was later used inEnglish.[9]
As was the case in all Dominions, by convention the governor-general acted on theadvice of elected officials. For the most part, this advice came from Irish officials, and on a day-to-day basis the governor-general played a ceremonial role in the Irish Free State similar to the one the King played in the United Kingdom. (Notably, the head of government, who in practice held the most powerful position in the State, held the titlePresident of the Executive Council rather thanPrime Minister as in other Dominions.)
At the Free State's inception, however, the governor-general served an additional role as the British government's agent, as was true in other Dominions as well. This meant that all official correspondence between the British and Irish governments went through the governor-general and that he had access to British government papers. It also meant that he could receive secret instructions from the British government and so, for example, on assuming officeTim Healy was formally advised by the British government to veto any law that attempted to abolish the Oath of Allegiance. However, no such law was passed during Healy's term of office, and in practice the governor-general never received conflicting advice from Irish and British officials during the existence of the Free State.
Under the original constitution of the Irish Free State in 1922, the monarch had a number of formal duties:
The Oath of Allegiance was included in Article 17 of theIrish Free State's1922 Constitution. It read:
I(name) do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established, and that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George V, his heirs and successors by law in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations.
The words "allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State" were taken from De Valera's preferred version, which read: "I (name) do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the Irish Free State, to the Treaty of Association, and to recognise the King of Great Britain as Head of Associated States".[10]
The creation of the Irish Free State came at a time when all the Dominions of the British Empire were increasingly asserting their place as partners with the United Kingdom rather than its colonies, a process that Irish participation in Imperial affairs helped accelerate. For instance, while the Empire had since the 1880s been occasionally referred to asthe Commonwealth of Nations,[11] the text of the Oath of Allegiance in the Anglo-Irish Treaty was the first use of the phrase in statute law; it replacedthe British Empire in the course of negotiations.[12]
TheBalfour Declaration, issued at the1926 Imperial Conference, formally recognized the equality of the Dominions with the United Kingdom and with one another, and established that the various governors-general would henceforth only take advice from their Dominion governments. This equality was codified in legislative terms by theStatute of Westminster in 1931, which removed almost all of Westminster's remaining authority to legislate for the Dominions, effectively granting the Free State internationally recognised independence. It also granted the Free State the freedom to amend its constitution outside the terms set by the Anglo-Irish Treaty.[13]Patrick McGilligan, theFree State Minister for External Affairs, called the Statute of Westminster "the solemn declaration by the British people through their representatives in Parliament that the powers inherent in the Treaty position are what we have proclaimed them to be for the last ten years," and went on to present the legislation as largely the fruit of the Free State's efforts to secure for the other Dominions the same benefits it already enjoyed under the treaty.[14]
The1932 Irish general election was won byFianna Fáil, led by de Valera, on arepublican platform. Over the next several years, the Irish government began reducing the visibility and formal role of the monarch and governor-general.Domhnall Ua Buachalla, a republican and former Fianna FáilTD, was appointed governor-general in late 1932; on his government's advice, he withdrew from all public and ceremonial roles, performing in a perfunctory manner the minimum duties required by the Constitution. The governor-general'srole in budget appropriations andability to veto legislation were abolished,as was the Oath of Allegiance. No treaties requiring the assent of the king as head of state were signed from 1931 to 1937. Two methods were used to circumvent this: bilateral treaties were concluded at government rather than head-of-state level; for multilateral treaties, the Free State chose not to enrol at inauguration via the king's signature, but instead to accede a few months later via the signature of theMinister for External Affairs.[15]
In January 1936,George V died and was succeeded by his eldest son, who becameEdward VIII. The new King's reign lasted only eleven months, and heabdicated in December of that year and was succeeded byGeorge VI. The parliaments of independent members of theBritish Commonwealth were required to ratify this change in monarch, and de Valera's government decided to use this opportunity to drastically change the constitution.
TheConstitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936, swiftly passed by the Oireachtas in response to the abdication, abolished the post of Governor-General and transferred most of the monarch's functions to other organs of government. Thus, for example, the executive power was transferred directly to the Executive Council, the right to appoint thePresident of the Executive Council was explicitly vested inDáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament), and the power to promulgate legislation was transferred to theCeann Comhairle (chairperson of the Dáil). However, the constitutional amendment also provided, without mentioning the monarch specifically, for the state to be represented by him in external affairs with other countries and their representatives:[16]
it shall be lawful for the Executive Council, to the extent and subject to any conditions which may be determined by law to avail, for the purposes of the appointment of diplomatic and consular agents and the conclusion of international agreements of any organ used as a constitutional organ for the like purposes by any of the nations referred to in Article 1 of this Constitution.
The nations referred to in Article 1 were the other members of the British Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, New Zealand,South Africa, and the United Kingdom). TheExternal Relations Act, adopted shortly after the constitutional amendment, gave life to this provision by providing that:[17]
so long as [the Irish Free State] is associated with the following nations, that is to say, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and South Africa, and so long as the king recognised by those nations as the symbol of their co-operation continues to act on behalf of each of those nations (on the advice of the several Governments thereof) for the purposes of the appointment of diplomatic and consular representatives and the conclusion of international agreements, the king so recognised may … act on behalf of [the Irish Free State] for the like purposes as and when advised by the Executive Council so to do.
Thus, for the remaining year of the Irish Free State's existence, the king's role was restricted to diplomatic and foreign affairs – a standard head of state role – but he performed no formal duties in regards to domestic legislation or governance. The Act also recognized Edward's abdication and the accession of his brother as George VI.[17]
In 1937 a newConstitution was adopted on the proposal ofÉamon de Valera, establishing the contemporary Irish state namedÉire or, in the English language, Ireland. It did not describe or declare the state to be a republic, or use descriptions such as Ireland or theIrish Republic.
The new constitution filled the gap left by the abolition of the Governor-General by creating the post of a directly electedpresident of Ireland, who would "take precedence over all other persons in the State", but was not explicitly described as head of state. The president was henceforth responsible for the ceremonial functions of dissolving the legislature, appointing the government, and promulgating the law. Unlike most heads of state in parliamentary systems, the president was not even the nominal chief executive. Instead, the role of exercising executive authority was explicitly granted to the government—in practice, to theTaoiseach, a role similar to the Free State constitution's President of the Executive Council. The constitution also, like the1922 constitution that preceded it, contained many provisions typical of those found in republican constitutions, stating, for example, that sovereignty resided in the people and prohibiting the granting of titles of nobility.
Article 29 of the new constitution mirrored the amendment to its predecessor passed the previous year, by permitting the state to allow its external relations to be exercised by the king. Article 29.4.2° provided that:
For the purpose of the exercise of any executive function of the State in or in connection with its external relations, the Government may to such extent and subject to such conditions, if any, as may be determined by law, avail of or adopt any organ, instrument, or method of procedure used or adopted for the like purpose by the members of any group or league of nations with which the State is or becomes associated for the purpose of international co-operation in matters of common concern.
This provision meant that the External Relations Act continued to have the force of law until the legislature decided otherwise, and so the monarch continued to represent the state abroad when empowered to do so.
After the passage of the External Relations Act, some commentators consider that it was unclear whether the Irish state had become a republic or remained a form ofconstitutional monarchy and (from 1937) whether itshead of state was thePresident of Ireland or KingGeorge VI. Executive power continued to be exercisedde facto by the head of government. Nevertheless, the exact constitutional status of the state during this period has been a matter of scholarly and political dispute.[18]
From 1936 until 1949, the role of the king in the Irish state, having been reduced to a few formal duties in foreign affairs, was invisible to most Irish people. The monarch never visited the state during that period and, due to the abolition of the office of Governor-General, had no official representative there. The Irish government had also ceased to actively participate in the institutions of the British Commonwealth after the1932 Imperial Conference. The president, on the other hand, played a key role in important public ceremonies.
Asked to explain the country's status in 1945, de Valera insisted that it was a republic. He told the Dáil that:
The State ... is ... demonstrably a republic. Let us look up any standard text on political theory ... and judge whether our State does not possess every characteristic mark by which a republic can be distinguished or recognised. We are a democracy with the ultimate sovereign power resting with the people—a representative democracy with the various organs of State functioning under a written Constitution, with the executive authority controlled by Parliament, with an independent judiciary functioning under the Constitution and the law, and with a Head of State directly elected by the people for a definite term of office.[19]
Referring to the External Relations Act he insisted that:
We are an independent republic, associated as a matter of our external policy with the States of the British Commonwealth.[19]
Despite de Valera's views, many political scholars consider representing a nation abroad to be the key defining role of a head of state.
The issue seems to have come to a head in 1948 on an official visit to Canada by new TaoiseachJohn A. Costello, whoseFine Gael party carried the tradition of the pro-Treaty political forces in Ireland. During astate dinner with theGovernor General of Canada,the Earl Alexander of Tunis, an agreement that there would be separate toasts for the King and for the President of Ireland was broken. Only a toast to the King was proposed, to the fury of the Irish delegation. Alexander, who was of Northern Irish descent, placed loyalist symbols, notably a replica of the famousRoaring Meg cannon used in theSiege of Derry, before an affronted Costello at the dinner. Shortly afterwards, while still in Ottawa, Costello announced that his government would introduce a bill that would unambiguously make Ireland a republic. Costello biographerDavid McCullagh has suggested that it was a spur of the moment reaction to offence caused by Alexander at the dinner, although the cabinet members at the time claimed that the decision had already been made and was announced early because it had been leaked to theSunday Independent. The evidence of what really happened remains ambiguous.[20]
At any rate, theRepublic of Ireland Bill was soon introduced into theOireachtas. In the debate in theSeanad Éireann in December 1948 on the law, Costello argued that the bill would make the President of Ireland the Irish head of state. De Valera's party, the main opposition in the Dáil at the time, did not oppose the bill, and it passed quickly.
The Act contained three major provisions: it repealed the External Relations Act; it provided that the description of the state was theRepublic of Ireland; and it provided that the external relations of the state would henceforth be exercised by the President.
The Act came into force on 18 April 1949,Easter Monday,[21] to commemorate theProclamation of the Irish Republic, which had been read byPatrick Pearse at the beginning of theEaster Rising on Easter Monday 1916. Soon after PresidentSeán T. O'Kelly signed the act into law, he commemorated his new status as the clear and unambiguous Irish head of state with state visits to theHoly See and France. A visit to meet George VI atBuckingham Palace was also provisionally planned, but timetabling problems with the president's schedule prevented the meeting.[citation needed]
One practical implication of explicitly declaring the state to be a republic in 1949 was that it automatically led to the state's termination of membership of the thenBritish Commonwealth, in accordance with the rules in operation at the time. However, on 26 April, just days after the Act came into effect, the Commonwealth issued theLondon Declaration, which allowed India to remain within the Commonwealth while becoming a republic.[22] The formula used in the Declaration—that India would "accept ... The King as the symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and as such the Head of the Commonwealth"—has been noted for its similarity to de Valera's 1921 proposal for an Irish Republic's "external association" with the Commonwealth, and to the wording of the 1936 External Relations Act.[23][24][25]
The United Kingdom responded to the Republic of Ireland Act by enacting theIreland Act 1949. This Act formally asserted that the Irish state had, when the Republic of Ireland Act came into force, ceased "to be part of His Majesty's dominions"[26] and accordingly was no longer within the Commonwealth. Nonetheless, the United Kingdom statute provided that Irish citizens would not be treated as aliens underBritish nationality law. This, in effect, granted them a status similar to the citizens of Commonwealth countries.[27]
| Portrait | Regnal name (birth–death) | House | Reign | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | End | |||
.jpg) | George V (1865–1936) | Windsor | 6 December 1922 | 20 January 1936 |
| Governor-general: President of the Executive Council: | ||||
.jpg) | Edward VIII (1894–1972) | 20 January 1936 | 12 December 1936[a] | |
| Governor-general: Domhnall Ua Buachalla President of the Executive Council: Éamon de Valera | ||||
.jpg) | George VI (1895–1952) | 12 December 1936 | 29 December 1937[29] | |
| Governor-general: Office abolished President of the Executive Council: Éamon de Valera | ||||
| 29 December 1937 | 18 April 1949[30] | |||
| President: Taoiseach: | ||||
While Henry VIII of England hadadopted "King of Ireland" as a distinct title in 1544,[31] that title was subsumed into a single royal title with theformal unification of Ireland and Great Britain in 1801, and no distinct royal title or style was revived for use in Ireland between 1922 and 1949. Instead, a singlestyle was used throughout the British Commonwealth[citation needed]:
The changes during this period were effected by acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which authorized the monarchs to make alterations to their style via royal proclamation. However, the wording of the 1927 change, brought about by theRoyal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927, was agreed upon at the1926 Imperial Conference, in which representatives of the Irish Free State participated, and was formulated specifically to reflect the changed Irish political situation.[32]
Irish law did not provide any alternate royal style or title during this period. The original text of the Constitution of the Irish Free State simply referred to the monarch as the "King" without further elaboration.[33] The opening words of Ireland's superseding constitution of 1937 were "In the Name of the Most HolyTrinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred", and there was no mention in it of the king or monarch;[34][35] the External Relations Act, the only Irish law referring to the monarch still in force after 1936, called him "the king recognised by those nations [of the British Commonwealth] as the symbol of their co-operation."
Despite the passage of the Republic of Ireland Act, "Great Britain, Ireland" was not officially omitted from the royal title until 1953. Then, eachCommonwealth realm adopted a unique title for the monarch. No mention of Ireland was made in any except in the title within the United Kingdom and its dependent territories: it was changed from "of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas Queen" to "of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen".
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