Constitutionalism in Ireland, 1932–1938

244 Pages·2018·2.1 MB·English

by  Donal K. Coffey

CONSTITUTIONALISM
IN IRELAND,
1932–1938
NATIONAL,
COMMONWEALTH,
AND INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVES
Donal K. Coffey
Palgrave Modern Legal History
Series Editors
Catharine MacMillan
The Dickson Poon School of Law
King’s College London
London, UK
Rebecca Probert
School of Law
University of Exeter
Exeter, UK
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Donal K. Coffey
Constitutionalism in
Ireland, 1932–1938
National, Commonwealth, and International
Perspectives
Donal K. Coffey
Max Planck Institute for European Legal History
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Palgrave Modern Legal History
ISBN 978-3-319-76236-4 ISBN 978-3-319-76237-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76237-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018939549
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To Aishwarya
A
cknowledgements
Although a single name appears on the cover, one does not complete a
monograph without help. I have been extremely fortunate in the help I
have received.
I was the recipient of the Irish Legal History Studentship during my
PhD, on which this monograph is based. I would like to record my grati-
tude to the Society and to the successive treasurers for their help.
I would also like to thank the staff of various archives and institutions,
without which this monograph could not have been completed: in Australia,
the staff of the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of
Australia; in New Zealand, the staff of the Archives of New Zealand (Te
Rua Mahara o te Kaw̄ anatanga) and the National Library of New Zealand
(Te Puna Mat̄ auranga o Aotearoa); in South Africa, the staff of the National
Archives of South Africa and the University of Pretoria; in Geneva, the staff
of the League of Nations archives; and in London, the staff of the National
Archives and the British Library Newspaper Reading Room.
I would also like to record my thanks to various institutions in Ireland
that helped with the compilation of this monograph: the staff of the National
Archives of Ireland, Noelle Dowling at the Dublin Diocesan Archives for
access to the McQuaid papers, the Society of Jesus for access to the Jesuit
archives, the staff of the National Library of Ireland, the staff of the libraries
of University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, University College
Cork, University College Galway, the National University of Ireland
Maynooth, Dublin City library, and the Mater Dei institute. I would like to
particularly thank the staff of the University College Dublin archives for
their unfailing generosity in their dealings with me.
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research community in University College Dublin was a very valu-
able resource during my research. I would like to pay particular tribute
to my proofreaders—Oran Doyle, Niamh Howlin, James Lawless, David
Prendergast and Des Ryan all proof-read chapters.
Thanks are also due to Gerard Kelly, Kevin Heverin, Fergus O’Domhnaill
and Micheal O’Flionn for their help in London.
I would like to thank the following for their help with translations:
Niamh Coffey, Seamus Coffey, Maebh Harding and Giulia Liberatore.
I am profoundly grateful for the help of a supervisor par excellence—
Kevin Costello. He went beyond the call of duty innumerable times in the
compilation of this work; it would not have been possible without him.
I would like to thank my family—Sean, Diarmaid, Brian, Kevin, Fíona,
Niamh, Clodagh and Éanna. I would like to particularly thank my par-
ents—Donal and Eithne—to whom I owe everything.
Thanks are due to Benjamin Spendrin of the Max Planck Institute for
European Legal History for his help with this manuscript.
Particular thanks are due to Maebh Harding and Stefan Vogenauer.
Finally, I would like to thank Aishwarya, Ana, and Daniel for their sup-
port and encouragement.
c
ontents
1 The Rise of Fianna Fáil and the Failure of the Constitution
of the Irish Free State 1
2 Advancing the Republican Project 41
3 The Abdication of King Edward VIII 83
4 Constitutional Drafting and Contemporary Debates 119
5 The Reception of the Irish Constitution: May–July 1937 163
6 Aftermath 207
Index 231
ix
I
ntroductIon
The first chapter of this book aims to answer the question why the Irish
Free State Constitution of 1922 failed.1 The answers depend on an under-
standing of the constitutional currents buffeting Ireland in the 1920s and
1930s. The focus of this work is the 1937 Constitution, a document pre-
dominantly identified with the Fianna Fáil party, the party in power when
the Constitution was enacted. The most significant viewpoint for under-
standing why the 1922 Constitution failed is, therefore, that of Fianna
Fáil. The first chapter charts the constitutional development of the party
while in opposition and upon election as the government of the Free State
in 1932. It provides an explanation for the flaws in the constitutional
architecture of the Free State and the reasons why the 1922 Constitution
was not accepted by Fianna Fáil.
The second chapter considers a question related to the first chapter:
why did Fianna Fáil decide to attempt to enact a new Constitution? The
party were concerned to ensure the internal sovereignty of the Irish Free
State and pursued a constitutional strategy which incrementally removed
all symbols of external influence. This embroiled the government of the
Free State in a constitutional dispute with the government of the United
Kingdom. In the course of this dispute, Éamon de Valera, president of the
executive council of the Irish Free State, concluded that a new Constitution
was necessary. The constitutional dispute with the United Kingdom was
1 The answer to this question, and to that posed in the second chapter, draws on analysis
previously published by the author as the article “The Need for a New Constitution: Irish
Constitutional Change 1932–1935,” Irish Jurist, 47, no. 2 (2012): 275–302.
xi