Abstract
The passage of the Constitution did not guarantee its viability. The fact that the Fine Gael party remained opposed to the theory underpinning the Constitution meant that it could have suffered the same fate as the 1922 Constitution of the Irish Free State. Notwithstanding this possibility, the British and Commonwealth governments were determined to keep Ireland within the Commonwealth if it wished it. Ultimately, the crisis between the British and Irish governments was brought to a close by the restoration of the treaty ports to Ireland, which ensured its territorial integrity.
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Notes
- 1.
69 Dáil Debates col. 20 (21 July 1937). The Irish Times recorded that when Cosgrave spoke of the ‘ultimate destruction’ of parliamentary institutions, ‘Mr. de Valera laughed gently, and made a brief note on the pad in front of him’. Irish Times, 22 July 1937.
- 2.
See, for example, 69 Dáil Debates cols. 1782–1783 (7 December 1937).
- 3.
69 Dáil Debates col. 2637 (16 December 1937).
- 4.
69 Dáil Debates col. 2637–2368 (16 December 1937).
- 5.
69 Dáil Debates col. 482 (20 October 1937).
- 6.
Irish Independent, 29 December 1937. This vehement passage provoked a strong rejoinder by The Irish Press on the following day: Irish Press, 30 December 1937.
- 7.
See further Chap. 5.
- 8.
Irish Times, 8 November 1937.
- 9.
Labour News, 17 June 1937.
- 10.
Constitution and Standing Orders (Dublin, 1936).
- 11.
Constitution and Standing Orders.
- 12.
Matheson to Lynch, 4 March 1937 (NAI: AGO/2000/22/796).
- 13.
Labour News, 1 January 1938.
- 14.
Article 18.1.
- 15.
Article 18.2.
- 16.
Article 18.5.
- 17.
Article 18.5.
- 18.
Article 18.4.1°.
- 19.
Article 18.7.1°.
- 20.
Article 18.7.2°.
- 21.
Article 18.8.
- 22.
It would also be necessary to hold the elections themselves within this time, which meant the time for finalising the legislation was considerably less than the 180 days.
- 23.
8 May 1937 (NAI: Taois s.10087A).
- 24.
4 June 1937. It seems as if this memorandum was composed by Flinn without formal instruction to do so.
- 25.
15 July 1937 (NAI: Taois s.10087A).
- 26.
27 August 1937 (NAI: Taois s.10087A).
- 27.
NAI: Taois s.10087A, s 4(2)(b) of the Seanad Electoral (Panel Members) Act 1937.
- 28.
9 September 1937 (NAI: Taois s.10087A).
- 29.
Memo of 14 September 1937 (NAI: Taois s.10087A).
- 30.
Cab 8/9, 15 September 1937 (NAI: Taois s.10087A).
- 31.
20 September 1937 (NAI: Taois s.10087A).
- 32.
69 Dáil Debates col. 288 (7 October 1937).
- 33.
The numbers would be rounded up or down to the nearest thousand; see 69 Dáil Debates col. 297 (7 October 1937).
- 34.
This fact was not overlooked by the press; Irish Independent, 23 September 1937.
- 35.
69 Dáil Debates cols. 369–370 (7 October 1937).
- 36.
69 Dáil Debates cols. 1395–1400 (1 December 1937).
- 37.
14 November 1937 (UCDA: P67/185).
- 38.
UCDA: P67/186. Keogh intimates that MacEntee’s letter of resignation came in the aftermath of the report of the Second House Commission, which was in 1936; see Twentieth-Century Ireland: Nation and State (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994), 103. This cannot be squared with what MacEntee states in the letter; the 1936 Commission did not represent a defeat for the government.
- 39.
See Tom Garvin, The Irish Senate (Dublin; Institute of Public Administration, 1969), 19–22.
- 40.
S. 36(a).
- 41.
S. 36(b), s. 37.
- 42.
Details taken from memorandum by Liam O-hAodha, 22 December 1937 (UCDA: P150/2450).
- 43.
Dublin Evening Mail, 29 December 1937, Irish Times, 30 December 1937.
- 44.
Dublin Evening Mail, ibid.
- 45.
Irish Press, 30 December 1937.
- 46.
The total number of soldiers was, if possible, of company strength.
- 47.
Dublin Evening Mail, 29 December 1937.
- 48.
Irish Independent, 30 December 1937.
- 49.
Cork Examiner, 30 December 1937.
- 50.
Irish Press, 30 December 1937.
- 51.
Accessed online at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15341a.htm.
- 52.
Dublin Evening Mail, 29 December 1937: ‘Notable absentees were the leaders of the Opposition parties in the Dail.’
- 53.
Irish Press, 30 December 1937.
- 54.
Irish Times, 30 December 1937.
- 55.
NAI: Taois s.10437.
- 56.
Irish Times, 30 December 1937.
- 57.
Irish Times, 30 December 1937.
- 58.
Irish Press, 30 December 1937.
- 59.
Irish Independent, 30 December 1937.
- 60.
Cork Examiner, 30 December 1937.
- 61.
Irish Times, 30 December 1937.
- 62.
Irish Times, 30 December 1937.
- 63.
Irish Times, 30 December 1937.
- 64.
Arthur Bromage, “Anglo-Irish Accord,” Political Science Quarterly 53 (1938): 516, 531.
- 65.
Manchester Guardian, 23 November 1935. MacDonald’s rapid ascent to ministerial office in the 1930s was the source of some controversy at the time; he was described at the time of his appointment as ‘the perfect Under Secretary. So much so that the House of Commons was astonished—it is the simple truth—to discover one summer day this year that he had been made Colonial Secretary.’
- 66.
Manchester Guardian, 15 November 1936. The antipathy to Thomas was not confined to the Irish Free State. An editorial Melbourne in The Age declared: ‘Mr. Thomas … lacks the statesmanlike vision and the appreciation of the Dominions’ outlook that is imperative in a Minister representing Great Britain in the increasing intricacy and delicacy of relations with the Dominions . He is a “positive menace” to the harmony and success of the negotiations between the [British and Australian] governments.’ As excerpted in The Times, 19 November 1935.
- 67.
Manchester Guardian, 15 November 1936.
- 68.
NAI: DFA 105/46 (1 October 1937), as reproduced in Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Volume V 1937–1939 (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2006), hereinafter Documents Vol V, 110.
- 69.
Fisher was at the time Head of the Civil Service, Harding was permanent under-secretary of the dominions office and Batterbee was Assistant under-secretary of the dominions office.
- 70.
Clyde Sanger, Malcolm MacDonald: Bringing an End to Empire (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995): 112.
- 71.
Irish Times, 15 January 1937, Irish Independent, 15 January 1937, Irish Press, 15 January 1937.
- 72.
We may eliminate from consideration the fact that a journalist came by this source on the basis of their own work by the fact that all major newspapers had their correspondents in the hotel for the same meeting. Some of the newspapers described the meeting as ‘unexpected’ (Irish Times, 15 January 1937), but this seems more likely to refer to general populace than the press corps.
- 73.
Sanger, Malcolm MacDonald, 118.
- 74.
52 Dáil Debates col. 1869, 25 May 1934. This was a refrain not confined to de Valera alone, see Hugo Flinn, 27 Dáil Debates cols. 468–469, 21 November 1928.
- 75.
17 September 1938 (UCDA: P150/2349).
- 76.
Memorandum of 15 September 1937 (UCDA: P150/2349).
- 77.
Memorandum of 17 September 1937 (UCDA: P150/2349).
- 78.
TNA: PRO DO 35/891/4 (23 November 1937), as reproduced in Documents Vol V, 120–121.
- 79.
UCDA: P150/2179 (3 December 1937), as reproduced in Documents Vol V, 127–128.
- 80.
Irish Press, 15 December 1937.
- 81.
Irish Times, 30 December 1937.
- 82.
Irish Times, 30 December 1937.
- 83.
See, for example, the statement of Malcolm MacDonald in 331 House of Commons Debates 7–8 (1 February 1938).
- 84.
NAI: DT S10389, as reproduced in Documents Vol V, 141. See Deirdre McMahon , Republicans and Imperialists: Anglo-Irish Relations in the 1930s (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), Chaps. 11 and 12.
- 85.
Documents Vol V, 151.
- 86.
See Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry for ‘Eden, (Robert) Anthony’.
- 87.
Irish Press, 23 April 1938.
- 88.
See Irish Press, 20 April 1938, 23 April 1938.
- 89.
Irish Press, 8 April 1938, 20 April 1938.
- 90.
Irish Press, 26 April 1938.
- 91.
Irish Press, 27 April 1938.
- 92.
Manchester Guardian, 26 April 1938.
Bibliography
Bromage, Arthur. “Anglo-Irish Accord.” Political Science Quarterly 53 (1938): 516–532.
Constitution and Standing Orders. Dublin, 1936.
Garvin, Tom. The Irish Senate. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 1969.
Keogh, Dermot. Twentieth-Century Ireland: Nation and State. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1994.
McMahon, Deirdre. Republicans and Imperialists: Anglo-Irish Relations in the 1930s. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.
Sanger, Clyde. Malcolm MacDonald: Bringing an End to Empire. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995.
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Coffey, D.K. (2018). Aftermath. In: Constitutionalism in Ireland, 1932–1938. Palgrave Modern Legal History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76237-1_6
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