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The 'Republic of Ireland Act' was an enactment of Oireachtas Éireann passed in 1948, which came into force on April 18, 1949^[1] and which declared that the official description of the Irish state was to be the Republic of Ireland. It officially made the Irish state a republic and marked its exit from the Commonwealth.

Contents

The Act

External Relations Act, 1936

The Republic and the Commonwealth

References

External links

The Act

Between 1922 and 1937, the Irish state was technically a British dominion known as the Irish Free State. In 1937, a new constitution came into force which renamed the twenty-six county state ''Éire'' in Irish, and/or ''Ireland'' in English. (Article 4 of the constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann.) ''The Republic of Ireland Act, 1948'' changed the duties of the Irish President, and the "description" of the Irish state (to the 'Republic of Ireland'). An official name change would have necessitated a constitutional amendment and referendum, which the politicians wanted to avoid. The Act itself is quite short, running to just 5 brief sections and is therefore easy to quote in full.
: Number 22 of 1948
: The Republic of Ireland Act, 1948
: An act to repeal the Executive Authority (external relations) Act 1936, to declare that the description of the state shall be the Republic of Ireland, and to enable the President to exercise the executive power of any executive function of the state in or in connection with its external relations. (21 December, 1948)
: Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:-
:# The Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936 (No.58 of 1936) is hereby repealed.
:# It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland.
:# The President, on the authority and on the advice of the Government, may exercise the executive power or any executive function of the State in or in connection with its external relations.
:# This Act shall come into operation on such day as the Government may by order appoint.
:# This Act may be cited as The Republic of Ireland Act, 1948.
This ended the difficult period of transition from British rule to the Republic. The Irish Civil War had been fought in 1922–23 was over conflicting definitions of Irish independence and the extent to which it was a reality under the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The Oath of Allegiance, the theoretical cause of the split, was a symbol of the wider debate.

External Relations Act, 1936

The Act repealed the External Relations Act, 1936. Under that Act, King George VI as King of Ireland acted as the Irish head of state in international relations. He accredited ambassadors and on Ireland's behalf accepted credentials appointing foreign ambassadors to Ireland. The ''Republic of Ireland Act'' removed this role (the last remaining role) from the King and vested it instead in the President of Ireland, making the then President of Ireland, Seán T. O'Kelly unambiguously the Irish head of state.

The Republic and the Commonwealth

The Republic of Ireland Act amounted to a final declaration of an Irish republic. Irish membership of the Commonwealth of Nations automatically lapsed and necessitated the introduction of the Ireland Act 1949 by Westminster to avoid Irish citizens in the UK being treated as foreigners. The Irish government, under John A. Costello, opted not to reapply for membership, although at the time, membership was dependent on allegiance to the British Crown until India became a republic within the Commonwealth in 1950. This decision was criticised by then Leader of the Opposition Éamon de Valera, who considered applying for membership in the 1950s. (De Valera's grandson, Éamon Ó Cuív, now an Irish government minister, in the 1990s again advocated Irish membership of the Commonwealth.)
In the 1990s the ''All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution'' considered amending Bunreacht na hÉireann to mention that Ireland is a republic. It decided against, eventually. This was the second time that such an amendment was considered by committee.

References

1. The Republic of Ireland Act, 1948 (Commencement) Order, 1949

External links

★ Republic of Ireland Act, 1948