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The Irish Constitution: A Discussion of its Theoretical Aspects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

W. Bromage  and
Mary C. Bromage
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Extract

WHEN a new constitution was promised to the Irish people a few years ago, Eamon de Valera, then President of Saorstat Eireann and now Prime Minister of Eire, told his people that it would be written as if England were a million miles away. Apart from the passing phases of Anglo-Irish relations, he wished to remove his constitutional plans from the limitations of contemporary events, to unshackle his mind from the here and the now. How far he succeeded in this effort will be known only in the twenty-first century or the twenty-second. Then, if the new Bunreacht na hEireannhas withstood the slings and arrows of Irish fortunes, de Valera and his advisers will be found to have written not only for their own time but for times to come as they intended.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , April 1940 , pp. 145 - 166
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1940

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References

1 Bunreacht na hEireann, Art. 40, sec. 4.

1a The New York Times, February 10, 1940.

2 Rerum Novarum, Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII on the condition of labor, 05 15, 1891. The Paulist Press, N. Y., p. 18Google Scholar.

3 Bunreacht, Art. 5.

4 Bunreacht, Art. 6. For a modern and pertinent statement on this point, see RevMichael, Browne, “The Source and Purpose of Political Authority,” Studies, vol. 25, p. 390 (1936)Google Scholar.

5 See Scott, James B., The Catholic Conception of International Law, 1934 (Chap. IV, “Suarez on the State”), pp. 241–260Google Scholar.

5a See RevRager, J. C., Political Philosophy of Blessed Cardinal Bel'armine, 1926, pp. 44–55Google Scholar.

5b See StAquinas, Thomas, De Regimine Principum. Translated by Phelan, Gerald B., On ihe Governance of Rulers, 1935, p. 33: “If, therefore, a group of free men is governed by their ruler for the common good of the group, that government will be right and just, as is suitable to free men.”Google Scholar

6 Bunreacht, Art. 9, sec. 2.

7 Bunreacht, Art. 45, sec. 3.

8 Summa Theologica, Part II (First Part); translation by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, London, 1915, Third Number, p. 4Google Scholar.

9 Ibid., p. 24.

10 Carney, H. A., “Ireland's Contribution to Law,” Law Society Journal, vol. 7, pp. 361–383 (08, 1936)Google Scholar.

11 Aeierni Pairis, Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII on scholastic philosophy, August 4, 1879. In The Catholic World, vol. 30, pp. 111–131 (10, 1879)Google Scholar.

12 Immortale Dei, Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII on the Christian constitutions of states, Nov. 1, 1885. In Ryan, J. A. and Millar, M. F. X., The State and the Church, 1922, p. 3Google Scholar.

13 Quadragesimo Anno, Encyclical letter of Pope Pius XI on reconstructing the social order, 05 15, 1931. The Paulist Press, N. Y., p. 7Google Scholar.

14 Summa Theologica, op. cit., p. 250.

15 Bunreacht, Art. 40, sec. 6.

16 Pascendi Dominici Cregis, Encyclical letter of Pope Pius X on modernism, Sept. 8, 1907. In American Catholic Quarterly Review, vol. 32, pp. 705–730 (10, 1907)Google Scholar.

17 Bunreacht, Art. 40, sec. 6.

18 Rerum Novarum, p. 29. “There are times, no doubt, when it is right that the law should interfere to prevent association; as when men join together for purposes which are evidently bad, unjust, or dangerous to the State. In such cases the public authority may justly forbid the formation of association, and may dissolve them when they already exist.”

19 Quadragesimo Anno, p. 24.

20 Ibid.

21 Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol. 6, p. 520.

22 The Irish Press, Oct. 6, 1939.

23 Bunreacht, Art. 41.

24 Rerum Novarum, p. 6.

25 Rappresenlanli in Terra, Encyclical letter of Pope Pius XI on Christian education, Dec. 31, 1929. In The New York Times, Jan. 19, 1930.

26 Bunreacht, Art. 41, sec. 2.

27 Bunreacht, Art. 45, sec. 2.

28 Rerum Novarum, p. 24.

29 Quadragesimo Anno, p. 21.

29a “Constitution of the German Reich,” 1919, Sec. II, Art. 119 and “The Constitutional Charter of the Czechoslovak Republic,” 1920, Art. 126. In Selecl Constitutions of the World, Dublin, 1922Google Scholar.

30 Bunreacht, Art. 42.

31 Summa Theologica, op. cit., p. 258.

32 See Ryan, and Millar, , op. cit., pp. 19 and 60Google Scholar.

33 Bunreacht, Arts. 40, 42, 44.

34 Quadragesimo Anno, p. 26, refers to the “directive principle of social and economic activity.”

35 Bunreacht, Art. 45, sec. 3.

36 Ibid., sec. 2.

37 Quadragesimo Anno, p. 26.

38 Ibid., p. 29.

39 Ibid., pp. 30–31.

40 Bunreacht, Art. 45, sec. 4.

41 Rerum Novarum, p. 20.

42 Executive Authority (External Relations) Act, 1936.

43 Mr Justice Gavan Duffy of the High Court held that the power claimed in the Offences against the State Act to intern on suspicion was fundamentally inconsistent with the constitution and ordered the release of Seumas Burke from custody. The Irish Press, Dec. 2, 1939.

44 Bunreacht, Art. 13.

45 Bunreacht, Art. 27. The Council of State is composed of the Prime Minister, the Vice Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, President of the High Court, Chairman of the Dail and the Seanad, the Attorney General; former Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chief Justices, and Presidential appointees, if any.

46 An Phoblacht, Dublin, 06 26, 1937Google Scholar.

47 Acknowledgment is made to the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies of the University of Michigan for a grant which made this and other studies in Ireland possible. The authors express appreciation to Professor Jesse S. Reeves of the University of Michigan for valuable suggestions and comments.