[EVENT] Pursuing the Final Goal of an Irish Republic

#Roinn an Taoisigh / Department of the Taoiseach

Drafting of the Republic of Ireland Act
December 30th, 1947
Dublin, Ireland

The British Empire Dominion that was known as the Irish Free State is gone: with the replacement of the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State with the 1937 Constitution of Ireland, the national sovereignty of the Irish people was reasserted. There is no longer a Governor General, there is no longer an Executive Council, and the English Monarch no longer presides as the head of state. However, the path to true Irish national sovereignty and republicanism has not been completely trodden, as King George IV still holds a measure of authority in Ireland, and we are truly only a republic in expression and spirit, but not in law and diplomacy. Therefore, it has been deemed that the time has come for the nature of our state to be set in stone for all the Irish people and the whole world to know, and for the last vestiges of foreign authority remaining this state to be abolished so that we may become truly sovereign. I fully intend to end any confusion in how Ireland governs or represents itself, and how it is perceived in the eyes of others. To meet this end, I, Taoiseach Éamon de Valera, have hereby charged Attorney-General Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh to draft a bill which will repeal the External Relations Act 1936 and will simultaneously declare Ireland to officially be described as a republic; the Republic of Ireland.

This bill, if passed, will also unambiguously establish the authority and position of the President of Ireland as head of state. In regards to the participation and membership of Ireland in the Commonwealth, especially considering the recent London Declaration, it is the view of the Government of Ireland that Ireland has been a de facto non-member since 1936. Since that year Ireland has had no King as head of state, since that year we have considered our state to be a republic, well in advance of the London Declaration. This bill is rather intended as a clarification of Ireland's constitutional status, and a debate on our legal standing within and relationship with the Commonwealth is one that must be separate and held at a later date.