On the Republic of Ireland Bill

24 November 1948

John A. Costello

The Republic of Ireland Act marked the final stage in the undoing of the 1921 treaty insofar as that treaty restricted the independence of the Irish state. The 1937 constitution and the 1936 External Relations Act had left the British monarch with only one function—to sign the credentials of Irish diplomats. Ireland became a republic and left the Commonwealth on 18 April 1949—Easter Monday, a date chosen to signify continuity with the proclamation of a republic on Easter Monday, 1916. In his speech Costello expressed the hope that the bill would help to bring a solution to partition, but Britain responded by enacting the 1949 Ireland Act, which ensured that the status of Northern Ireland could be changed only by a majority vote of the Northern Ireland parliament.

The bill is a simple bill but it has tremendous and, I believe and hope, very beneficial results. The first section repeals the External Relations Act. I have dealt fully with that. Section Two provides: "It is hereby declared that the description of the state shall be the Republic of Ireland." That section is so obviously necessary that it requires no advocacy on my part to commend it to the Dáil. Deputies will recall that under the consitution the name of the state is Éire or, in the English language, Ireland. Now, this section does not purport, as it could not, to repeal the consitution. There is the name of the state and there is the description of the state. The name of the state is Ireland and the description of the state is the Republic of Ireland. That is the description of its constitutional and international status. Deputies are probably aware of the fact that tremendous confusion has been caused by the use of that word "Éire" in Article 4. By a misuse by malicious people of that word, "Éire," they have identified it with the twenty-six counties and not with the state that was set up under this consitution of 1937.

In documents of a legal character, such as, for instance, policies of insurance, there is always difficulty in putting in what word one wants to describe the state referred to. Section 2 provides a solution for these difficulties, and those malicious newspapers who want to refer in derogatory tones to this country as "Éire" and who have coined these contemptuous adjectives about it, such as "Eireannish" and "Eirish," and all the rest of it, will have to conform to the legal direction here in this bill.

Section 2 does these subsidiary things but it does more than that. It does something fundamental. It declares to the world that when this bill is passed this state is unequivocally a republic. It states that as something that cannot be controverted or argued about and we can rely, I think and I hope, on international courtesy to prevent in future this contemptuous reference to us and the name of our state being used for contemptuous purposes, as it has been, by some people and by some organs in the last few years.

Section 3 merely provides that 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. We now, and we will under this clause and under this bill, have clarified our international position. No longer will there be letters of credence sent furtively across to Buckingham Palace. Diplomatic representatives will be received by the president of Ireland, the head of the state. We now have the unambiguous position that the president is head of the state and, if there are heads of state treaties to be entered into, if he goes abroad, he will go abroad as the head of this state, the head of the Republic of Ireland.

Section 4 says:

"This Act shall come into operation on such day as the government may by Order appoint."

When this bill is enacted there will be no reason for those fears, those apprehensions which have been so assiduously set abroad by the poisonous sections of the press, but there will be certain difficulties though not of a major character. I can hardly call them difficulties because they are not difficulties but merely legal matters that have to be cleared up and which may necessitate legislation here perhaps or perhaps in Canada, Australia, or Great Britain and we must provide a time limit, a breathing space within which these matters of detail can be carried out in concord and agreement. There are no very important matters; they are matters of detail, legal technicalities, not matters of difficulty or controversy. The will take some little time. I cannot say how long it will take to have these details brought into operation and accordingly, however much we would like to see this bill come into immediate operation, we will have to have a breathing space for the various parliaments to settle up the details which require to be settled up. They are not matters of difficulty.

As I said before and now repeat, I recommend this bill to the Dáil and ask for its unanimous acceptance by the Dáil. It will, I believe, if it is passed in a spirit of goodwill, if it is passed unanimously, do and achieve what its primary purpose hopes for: to bring peace here in this part of our country and by bringing this country well on to the international stage, by lifting this problem of partition from the domestic arena and putting it on the international scene, give us not a faint hope but a clear prospect of bringing about the unity of Ireland.

I should like to say one more thing in conclusion. There have been sometimes smug, sometimes fearsome declarations by British ministers or British governments that the problem of partition is an Irish problem, that must be settled between Irishmen. That Pilate-like attitude can no longer he held by statesmen with the courage and decency to look facts in the face. This problem was created by an act of the British parliament, the Government of Ireland Act, 1920. It may be insisting on the obvious, but I have had occasion to insist very strongly on the obvious in recent months. That Act of 1920 was passed before the Treaty of 1921 and it is surprising how many people think that the partition of our country was effected by the Treaty of 1921. The problem was created by the British government and the British parliament and it is for them to solve the problem. They cannot wash their hands of it and clear themselves of responsibility for it. The Act of 1920 is a very poor title for a claim which is not based upon morality and justice. The government of the six north-eastern counties claim[s] that and assert it by virtue of a majority, a statutorily created majority, a majority created deliberately under the Act of 1920 to coerce and keep within the bounds of their so-called state masses of our Catholic people and fellow Irishmen who do no want to be there. The Act of 1920 was put on the Statute Book and brought into operation without a single vote cast in its favour by any Irish representative in the British parliament or without anybody North or South wanting it. Therefore the problem of undoing that wrong devolves upon the British government. We are doing our part down here. We are doing our part by this bill.

The whole basis of the case I make for this bill is founded on goodwill, is founded on the end of bitterness. It is founded on a sincere desire to have greater goodwill with Great Britain. We hope through the creation of that goodwill, through fostering further goodwill, that that will help materially to induce the British government and Great Britain to take a hand in the undoing of the wrong for which the predecessors were responsible in 1920. We believe that this bill, by creating conditions on which that goodwill can increase, will help towards the solution of the problem of partition.

We hold out, as I said here earlier today, the hand of friendship to the descent people of Northern Ireland and they can be assured if they come in here, end this great wrong and come into a unified Ireland, they will be doing good work for themselves, for the whole of Ireland and for that country to which they proclaim their intense loyalty, Great Britain, and the Commonwealth of Nations and be giving a lasting contribution to the peace of the world.

DÁil Debates, vol. 113, cols. 394–398, available at www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie.