The Republic of Ireland

Abstract

Ireland has been a sovereign state for less than 70 years. Much of its constitutional development has focused on the assertion of this sovereignty in the face of continuing economic and cultural influences emanating from its more powerful neighbour and erstwhile coloniser, Great Britain. As a leading writer on Irish politics has observed:

When a national movement succeeds, people are very self-conscious about their statehood, however passive many of them may have been before. If the state is small and weak, anxiety about its continued existence and integrity is inevitably reflected in a heightened self-consciousness.¹