The Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act, 1936 was an amendment to the Constitution of the Irish Free State that abolished the office of Governor-General, removed all reference to the King and almost completely eliminated the King's constitutional role in the state. Under the amendment most of the functions previously performed by King and his Governor-General were transferred to various other organs of government. Hence-forth, the only role retained by the King was as representative of the state in foreign affairs. The amendment became law on 11th December, 1936. Its long title was:

An act to effect certain amendments of the Constitution in relation to the executive authority and power and in relation to the performance of certain executive functions.

Background

As adopted in 1922 the Free State constitution established a system of constitutional monarchy, under the same monarch who reigned in the United Kingdom. This form of government had not been freely chosen by Irish nationalists but rather imposed by the British goverment as a condition of allowing the Free State to seceed from the United Kingdom. This aspect of the Free State constitution was bitterly opposed by many Irish nationalists, both as a symbol of foreign subjugation and on grounds of philosophical republicanism.

The Fianna Fail government of Eamon de Valera, elected in 1932, was determined to remove to overhaul the constitution as part of a process of 'constitutional autochthony' or 'legal nationalism '. De Valera used the occasion of the controversial abdication of Edward VIII in 1936 to begin the introduction of a series of constitutional reforms that would nativise the constitution. However, de Valera did not wish, at this time, to declare a republic or to eliminate the role of the monarch entirely. Either of these actions would have entailed leaving the British Commonwealth.

The amendment of December 1936 occurred in the last days of the Free State. In December 1937 the new Constitution of Ireland was adopted. This transferred most of the functions that had been performed by the King and his Governor-General before 1936 to a new office of President of Ireland. However the King continued to exercise the function of representing the state abroad until the state was declare to be a republic in 1949.

Transfer of royal competences

After the adoption of the Act the duties usually performed by a head of state were distributed among a number of organs. Most importantly, the power to exercise the executive authority was vested explicitly in the Executive Council (cabinet), the right to appoint the President of the Executive Council (prime minister) was transferred to Dáil Éireann (the sole house of the 'Oireachtas' or parliament), and the duty of promulgating the law was vested in the Ceann Comhairle (chairman of the Dáil). The King retained only a role in foreign affairs.

Foreign affairs

After the amdment of December 1936 the King was no longer mentioned in the constitution by name. However the amendment introduced a new provision that, without explicitly referring to the King, allowed the state to continue to use him as its representative in foreign affairs by passing a law allowing him to do so. A law for this purpose, the External Relations Act, was passed shortly after the amendment was passed. Thus after December 1936 treaties continued to be signed in the name of the King and the King continued to accredit Irish ambassadors, and receive the letters of credence of foreign diplomats. The provision allowing the King to do this was inserted in Article 51 and read:

..it shall be lawful for the Executive Council, to the extent and subject to any conditions which may be determined by law to avail, for the purposes of the appointment of diplomatic and consular agents and the conclusion of international agreements of any organ used as a constitutional organ for the like purposes by [other nations of the Commonwealth].

When the Constitution of Ireland was enacted in 1937 it duplicated the provision contained in the Free State constitution with a similar provision that allowed the King to continue to exercise his external role. The 1936 amendment and the External Relations Act thus created, for many years, a situation in which it was unclear whether or not the King of Ireland was indeed the Irish head of state. This situation came to an end in 1949 when the Republic of Ireland Act stripped the King of his role in foreign affairs.

See also

• History of the southern Irish state
• Irish head of state from 1936-1949

External links

• Full text of the Act from Acts of the Oireachtas.