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The British government’s reaction to this was relatively composed. The Irish government proceeded on the assumption that Ireland was an entirely sovereign independent country that was merely associated with the Commonwealth. The British government assumed that, despite their distaste for de Valera’s 1937 constitution, nothing had essentially changed. Crucially, neither insisted on its own interpretation. This remained the status quo until 1948. UCD. Unlike his predecessors, de Valera was uninterested in exploring the limits of Ireland’s status as a Dominion; instead, he ignored it. But crucially, he was unwilling to break away from the Commonwealth: the credentials of Irish diplomats were still authorised by the King, and Ireland remained an associate member of the Commonwealth. These provided continued, albeit tenuous, links to the Empire (ostensibly as a route to allow ultimate Irish unity). UCD

The Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936 “provided for the disappearance of the Crown and the abolition of the Office of the Governor General”. It became law on 11 December 1936. On the following day, the Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936 was enacted and “provision was finally made for external association, i.e. that for so long as the Crown was recognized by “those nations [of the British Commonwealth of Nations] as the symbol of their cooperation” the Crown would have the function of the accreditation of diplomats. External association was now a fait accompli.

“having achieved external association unexpectedly, needed a new – internal – republican constitution (this had been announced first in May 1935).”

De Valera was bound by the Irish Free State constitution, but he avoided enactment of his 1937 draft by the Oireachtas. The treaty was still extant in Irish law, and Dáil Éireann (there was no Seanad Éireann) did not have the power under article 12 to enact a new constitution. That was for a new constituent assembly only. The plebiscite on 1 July 1937 (as opposed to its organization) was not constitutional, which is why enactment by the people (as it was dubbed) was a legal revolution. AM

“Given that there is little doubt about statehood in Ireland in 1937, was Éire/Ireland a successor to the Irish Free State? The answer would appear to be yes.” AM

“Éire/Ireland was treated as a successor state in its international relations.” AM.

“The 1921 treaty, in Irish law, was repealed from 29 December 1937. And the United Kingdom had, in its law, given this power to the Irish Free State in the Statute of Westminster 1931. It was not in any case a treaty in international law.” AM.

“6.44 Éire/Ireland, under article 29.4.2 of BNH, had remained within the commonwealth, while legally describing the relationship as external association (the United Kingdom government accepting there had been constitutional change in 1936–37). In 1948, de Valera’s political opponents – by repealing the Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936 – cut the last ties with the commonwealth.”

“It was, therefore, in the 1950s, that the Irish government resolved the dilemma by calling itself the government of Ireland.” AM

the League of Nations was informed that Ireland was the correct English name for the country. A unique modus vivendi was adopted by the two states when they concluded a bilateral agreement on air services in 1946. That agreement was styled as an "Agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland (Eire)". A parliamentary question as to why the term "Ireland (Eire)" was used rather than simply "Eire" was put in the British House of Commons. A parliamentary secretary for the Government, Ivor Thomas, explained the position as follows:

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The state known today as Ireland is the successor state to the Irish Free State, which existed from December 1922 to December 1937. At its foundation, the Irish Free State was, in accordance with its constitution and the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, governed as a constitutional monarchy, in personal union with the monarchy of the United Kingdom and other members of what was then called the British Commonwealth. The monarch as head of state was represented in the Irish Free State by his Governor-General, who performed most of the monarch's duties based on the advice of elected Irish officials.

The Statute of Westminster, passed in 1931, granted expanded sovereignty to the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and permitted the Irish state to amend its constitution and legislate outside the terms of the Treaty. The Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936, enacted in response to the abdication of Edward VIII, removed the role of the monarch for all internal purposes, leaving him only a few formal duties in foreign relations as a "symbol of cooperation" with other Commonwealth nations. The Constitution of Ireland, which took effect in December 1937, established the position of president of Ireland, with the office first filled in June 1938, but the monarch retained his role in foreign affairs, leaving open the question of which of the two figures was the formal head of state. The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 ended the statutory position of the British monarch for external purposes and assigned those duties to the President, taking effect in April 1949, from which point Ireland was inarguably a republic.

Background
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was agreed upon to end the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence fought between Irish revolutionaries who favored an Irish Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The treaty provided for the Irish Free State, which excluded Northern Ireland, as an autonomous and self-governing dominion of the British Commonwealth, with the British monarch as head of state, in the same manner as in Canada and Australia. The treaty also mandated that members of the new Irish parliament would have to take an oath of allegiance that promised fidelity to George V and his heirs.

The disestablishment of the Irish Republic declared in 1919, the imposition of even a constitutional monarchy, and the continued ties to Great Britain were particularly contentious for many Irish nationalists. Even the Treaty's supporters viewed it as a compromise imposed on the Irish by their inability to achieve full independence through military means: Michael Collins, the republican leader who had led the Irish negotiating team, argued that it gave "not the ultimate freedom that all nations aspire and develop, but the freedom to achieve freedom."

The Treaty was fiercely debated in the Second Dáil, the Irish Republic's revolutionary parliament. Éamon de Valera, the Republic's President, opposed the proposed dominion status for Ireland; instead, he advocated for a relationship he called external association, under which Ireland would be "associated" with the rest of the British Commonwealth and would "recognise His Britannic Majesty as head of the Association" — but not as Ireland's King or head of state.

Nevertheless, the Dáil narrowly approved the treaty, and de Valera resigned in protest. Pro-Treaty forces won the ensuing election and civil war, and the Free State's new constitution incorporated the monarchial elements mandated by the Treaty.

Irish Free State
The new Irish Free State thus established was a form of constitutional monarchy, a Dominion with the same monarch as the United Kingdom and other states within the British Commonwealth. Under its constitution, the King had functions that included the exercise of executive authority of the state, the appointment of the cabinet, the dissolution of the legislature, and the promulgation of laws. However, all of these were delegated to a representative called the Governor-General of the Irish Free State. The representative's title was not actually specified in the Treaty, and Collins considered a number of alternatives, including Commissioner of the British Commonwealth and President of Ireland. However, the Free State government ultimately settled on governor-general because it was the same title used by the corresponding officials in other Dominions. The office's Irish language title was Seanascal, meaning "high steward", which was later used in English.

As was the case in all Dominions, by convention the governor-general acted on the advice of elected officials. For the most part, this advice came from Irish officials, and on a day-to-day basis the governor-general played a ceremonial role in the Irish Free State similar to the one the King played in the United Kingdom. (Notably, the head of government, who in practice held the most powerful position in the State, held the title President of the Executive Council rather than Prime Minister as in other Dominions.)

At the Free State's inception, however, the governor-general served an additional role as the British government's agent, as was true in other Dominions as well. This meant that all official correspondence between the British and Irish governments went through the governor-general and that he had access to British government papers. It also meant that he could receive secret instructions from the British government and so, for example, on assuming office Tim Healy was formally advised by the British government to veto any law that attempted to abolish the Oath of Allegiance. However, no such law was passed during Healy's term of office, and in practice the governor-general never received conflicting advice from Irish and British officials during the existence of the Free State.

Duties and functions
Under the original constitution of the Irish Free State in 1922, the monarch had a number of formal duties:


 * Executive authority: The executive authority of the state was formally vested in the monarch but exercised by the governor-general. Under Article 51, executive authority was to be exercised in accordance with Canadian practice. Thus, with few exceptions, the governor-general was bound to act on the advice of the Executive Council.
 * Appointment of the cabinet: The President of the Executive Council (prime minister) was appointed by governor-general after being selected by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament). The remaining ministers were appointed on the nomination of the president, subject to a vote of consent in the Dáil.
 * Convention and dissolution of the legislature: The governor-general, on behalf of the monarch, convened and dissolved the Oireachtas on the advice of the Executive Council.
 * Signing bills into law: The monarch was formally, along with the Dáil and the Senate, one of three tiers of the Oireachtas. No bill could become law until it received the Royal Assent, which was given by the governor-general on behalf of the monarch. The governor-general theoretically had the right to veto a bill or reserve it "for the signification of the King's pleasure", in effect postponing a decision on whether or not to enact the bill, for a maximum of one year. However neither of these two actions was ever taken.
 * Appointment of judges: All judges were appointed by the governor-general, on the advice of the Executive Council.
 * Representing the state in foreign affairs: The monarch accredited ambassadors and received the letters of credence of foreign diplomats; ministers signed international treaties in his name. The role of the monarch in the Free State's foreign affairs was the only function retained by him after the constitutional changes of 1936.

Oath of Allegiance
The Oath of Allegiance was included in Article 17 of the Irish Free State's 1922 Constitution. It read:

"I (name) do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established, and that I will be faithful to His Majesty King George V, his heirs and successors by law in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to and membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of Nations."

The words "allegiance to the Constitution of the Irish Free State" were taken from De Valera's preferred version, which read: "I (name) do solemnly swear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the Irish Free State, to the Treaty of Association, and to recognise the King of Great Britain as Head of Associated States".

Diminishing role of monarchy


The creation of the Irish Free State came at a time when all the Dominions of the British Empire were increasingly asserting their place as partners with the United Kingdom rather than its colonies, a process that Irish participation in Imperial affairs helped accelerate. For instance, while the Empire had since the 1880s been occasionally referred to as the Commonwealth of Nations, the text of the Oath of Allegiance in the Anglo-Irish Treaty was the first use of the phrase in statute law; it replaced the British Empire in the course of negotiations.

The Balfour Declaration, issued at the 1926 Imperial Conference, formally recognized the equality of the Dominions with the United Kingdom and with one another, and established that the various governors-general would henceforth only take advice from their Dominion governments. This equality was codified in legislative terms by the Statute of Westminster in 1931, which among other provisions granted the Irish Free State the freedom to amend its constitution outside the terms set by the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Patrick McGilligan, the Free State Minister for External Affairs, called the Statute of Westminster "the solemn declaration by the British people through their representatives in Parliament that the powers inherent in the Treaty position are what we have proclaimed them to be for the last ten years," and went on to present the legislation as largely the fruit of the Free State's efforts to secure for the other Dominions the same benefits it already enjoyed under the treaty.

The 1932 Irish general election was won by Fianna Fáil, led by de Valera, on a republican platform. Over the next several years, the Irish government began reducing the visibility and formal role of the monarch and governor-general. Domhnall Ua Buachalla, a republican and former Fianna Fáil TD, was appointed governor-general in late 1932; on his government's advice, he withdrew from all public and ceremonial roles, performing in a perfunctory manner the minimum duties required by the Constitution. The governor-general's role in budget appropriations and ability to veto legislation were abolished, as was the Oath of Allegiance. No treaties requiring the assent of the king as head of state were signed from 1931 to 1937. Two methods were used to circumvent this: bilateral treaties were concluded at government rather than head-of-state level; for multilateral treaties, the Free State chose not to enrol at inauguration via the king's signature, but instead to accede a few months later via the signature of the Minister for External Affairs.

1936: Abdication crisis and the External Relations Act
In January 1936, George V died and was succeeded by his eldest son, who became Edward VIII. The new King's reign lasted only eleven months, and he abdicated in December of that year and was succeeded by George VI. The parliaments of independent members of the British Commonwealth were required to ratify this change in monarch, and de Valera's government decided to use this opportunity to drastically change the constitution.

The Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936, swiftly passed by the Oireachtas in response to the abdication, abolished the post of Governor-General and transferred most of the monarch's functions to other organs of government. Thus, for example, the executive power was transferred directly to the Executive Council, the right to appoint the President of the Executive Council was explicitly vested in Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament), and the power to promulgate legislation was transferred to the Ceann Comhairle (chairperson of the Dáil). However, the constitutional amendment also provided, without mentioning the monarch specifically, for the state to be represented by him in external affairs with other countries and their representatives:

"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 any of the nations referred to in Article 1 of this Constitution."

The nations referred to in Article 1 were the other members of the British Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom). The External Relations Act, adopted shortly after the constitutional amendment, gave life to this provision by providing that:

"so long as [the Irish Free State] is associated with the following nations, that is to say, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and South Africa, and so long as the king recognised by those nations as the symbol of their co-operation continues to act on behalf of each of those nations (on the advice of the several Governments thereof) for the purposes of the appointment of diplomatic and consular representatives and the conclusion of international agreements, the king so recognised may … act on behalf of [the Irish Free State] for the like purposes as and when advised by the Executive Council so to do."

Thus, for the remaining year of the Irish Free State's existence, the king's role was restricted to diplomatic and foreign affairs — a standard head of state role — but he performed no formal duties in regards to domestic legislation or governance. The Act also recognized Edward's abdication and the accession of his brother as George VI.

1937: Constitution of Ireland
In 1937 a new Constitution was adopted on the proposal of Éamon de Valera, establishing the contemporary Irish state named Éire or, in the English language, Ireland. It did not describe or declare the state to be a republic, or use descriptions such as Republic of Ireland or the Irish Republic.

The new constitution filled the gap left by the abolition of the Governor-General by creating the post of a directly elected president of Ireland, who would "take precedence over all other persons in the State", but was not explicitly described as head of state. The president was henceforth responsible for the ceremonial functions of dissolving the legislature, appointing the government, and promulgating the law. Unlike most heads of state in parliamentary systems, the president was not even the nominal chief executive. Instead, the role of exercising executive authority was explicitly granted to the government—in practice, to the Taoiseach, a role similar to the Free State constitution's President of the Executive Council. The constitution also, like the 1922 constitution that preceded it, contained many provisions typical of those found in republican constitutions, stating, for example, that sovereignty resided in the people and prohibiting the granting of titles of nobility.

Article 29 of the new constitution mirrored the amendment to its predecessor passed the previous year, by permitting the state to allow its external relations to be exercised by the king. Article 29.4.2° provided that: "For the purpose of the exercise of any executive function of the State in or in connection with its external relations, the Government may to such extent and subject to such conditions, if any, as may be determined by law, avail of or adopt any organ, instrument, or method of procedure used or adopted for the like purpose by the members of any group or league of nations with which the State is or becomes associated for the purpose of international co-operation in matters of common concern."

This provision meant that the External Relations Act continued to have the force of law until the legislature decided otherwise, and so the monarch continued to represent the state abroad when empowered to do so.

Ambiguity from 1936 to 1949
After the passage of the External Relations Act, some commentators consider that it was unclear whether the Irish state had become a republic or remained a form of constitutional monarchy and (from 1937) whether its head of state was the President of Ireland or King George VI. Executive power continued to be exercised de facto by the head of government. Nevertheless, the exact constitutional status of the state during this period has been a matter of scholarly and political dispute.

From 1936 until 1949, the role of the king in the Irish state, having been reduced to a few formal duties in foreign affairs, was invisible to most Irish people. The monarch never visited the state during that period and, due to the abolition of the office of Governor-General, had no official representative there. The Irish government had also ceased to actively participate in the institutions of the British Commonwealth after the 1932 Imperial Conference. The president, on the other hand, played a key role in important public ceremonies.

Asked to explain the country's status in 1945, de Valera insisted that it was a republic. He told the Dáil that:

"The State ... is ... demonstrably a republic. Let us look up any standard text on political theory ... and judge whether our State does not possess every characteristic mark by which a republic can be distinguished or recognised. We are a democracy with the ultimate sovereign power resting with the people—a representative democracy with the various organs of State functioning under a written Constitution, with the executive authority controlled by Parliament, with an independent judiciary functioning under the Constitution and the law, and with a Head of State directly elected by the people for a definite term of office."

Referring to the External Relations Act he insisted that: "We are an independent republic, associated as a matter of our external policy with the States of the British Commonwealth."

Despite de Valera's views, many political scholars consider representing a nation abroad to be the key defining role of a head of state.

The issue seems to have come to a head in 1948 on an official visit to Canada by new Taoiseach John A. Costello, whose Fine Gael party carried the tradition of the pro-Treaty political forces in Ireland. During a state dinner with the Governor General of Canada, the Earl Alexander of Tunis, an agreement that there would be separate toasts for the King and for the President of Ireland was broken. Only a toast to the King was proposed, to the fury of the Irish delegation. Alexander, who was of Northern Irish descent, placed loyalist symbols, notably a replica of the famous Roaring Meg cannon used in the Siege of Derry, before an affronted Costello at the dinner. Shortly afterwards, while still in Ottawa, Costello announced that his government would introduce a bill that would unambiguously make Ireland a republic. Costello biographer David McCullagh has suggested that it was a spur of the moment reaction to offence caused by Alexander at the dinner, although the cabinet members at the time claimed that the decision had already been made and was announced early because it had been leaked to the Sunday Independent. The evidence of what really happened remains ambiguous.

The Republic of Ireland Act 1948
At any rate, The Republic of Ireland Bill was soon introduced into the Oireachtas. In the debate in the Seanad Éireann in December 1948 on the law, Costello argued that the bill would make the President of Ireland the Irish head of state. De Valera's party, the main opposition in the Dáil at the time, did not oppose the bill, and it passed quickly.

The Act contained three major provisions: it repealed the External Relations Act; it provided that the description of the state was the Republic of Ireland; and it provided that the external relations of the state would henceforth be exercised by the President.

The Act came into force on 18 April 1949, Easter Monday, to commemorate the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, which had been read by Patrick Pearse at the beginning of the Easter Rising on Easter Monday 1916. Soon after President Seán T. O'Kelly signed the act into law, he commemorated his new status as the clear and unambiguous Irish head of state with state visits to the Holy See and France. A visit to meet George VI at Buckingham Palace was also provisionally planned, but timetabling problems with the president's schedule prevented the meeting.

One practical implication of explicitly declaring the state to be a republic in 1949 was that it automatically led to the state's termination of membership of the then British Commonwealth, in accordance with the rules in operation at the time. However, on 26 April, just days after the Act came into effect, the Commonwealth issued the London Declaration, which allowed India to remain within the Commonwealth while becoming a republic. The formula used in the Declaration—that India would "accept ... The King as the symbol of the free association of its independent member nations and as such the Head of the Commonwealth"—has been noted for its similarity to de Valera's 1921 proposal for an Irish Republic's "external association" with the Commonwealth, and to the wording of the 1936 External Relations Act.

The United Kingdom responded to the Republic of Ireland Act by enacting the Ireland Act 1949. This Act formally asserted that the Irish state had, when the Republic of Ireland Act came into force, ceased "to be part of His Majesty's dominions" and accordingly was no longer within the Commonwealth. Nonetheless, the United Kingdom statute provided that Irish citizens would not be treated as aliens under British nationality law. This, in effect, granted them a status similar to the citizens of Commonwealth countries.

Title of the sovereign
While Henry VIII of England had adopted "King of Ireland" as a distinct title in 1544, that title was subsumed into a single royal title with the formal unification of Ireland and Great Britain in 1801, and no distinct royal title or style was revived for use in Ireland between 1922 and 1949. Instead, a single style was used throughout the British Commonwealth:


 * 1922–1927: By the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India
 * 1927–1948: By the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India
 * 1948–1949: By the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas King, Defender of the Faith

The changes during this period were effected by acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which authorized the monarchs to make alterations to their style via royal proclamation. However, the wording of the 1927 change, brought about by the Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act 1927, was agreed upon at the 1926 Imperial Conference, in which representatives of the Irish Free State participated, and was formulated specifically to reflect the changed Irish political situation.

Irish law did not provide any alternate royal style or title during this period. The original text of the Constitution of the Irish Free State simply referred to the monarch as the "King" without further elaboration. The opening words of Ireland's superseding constitution of 1937 were "In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred", and there was no mention in it of the king or monarch; the External Relations Act, the only Irish law referring to the monarch still in force after 1936, called him "the king recognised by those nations [of the British Commonwealth] as the symbol of their co-operation."

Despite the passage of the Republic of Ireland Act, "Great Britain, Ireland" was not officially omitted from the royal title until 1953. Then, each Commonwealth realm adopted a unique title for the monarch. No mention of Ireland was made in any except in the title within the United Kingdom and its dependent territories: it was changed from "of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas Queen" to "of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen".

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“If the Irish Free State chooses to compete —and she probably will—then Dr. Patrick O’Callaghan, twice Olympic champion hammer thrower, or R. M. N. Tisdall, current 400 metre \ mpic title holder, if in training, would almost certainlv necessitate the raising of the green flag to the top of the centre staff/ India has a good hurdler and sprinter; South Africa won three titles in the first -.mpire Games and is certain to be athletically prominent; and you can overestimate the strength of England and Scotland which won en irst and ten second places in the 1930 meet held in Hamilton,

Empire Field Day H. H. ROXBOROUGH JULY 15 1934

Treaty-Making Procedure in the British Dominions Robert B. Stewart The American Journal of International Law The American Journal of International Law Vol. 32, No. 3 (Jul., 1938), pp. 467-487 (21 pages)

"Solomon Islands Act 1978 - “On and after 7th July 1978 (“Independence Day”) the territories which immediately before that day are comprised in the Solomon Islands protectorate shall together form part of Her Majesty’s dominions under the name of Solomon Islands; and on and after that day Her Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom shall have no responsibility for the government of those territories.”"

"Ghana Indepdence Act 1957 - “The territories included immediately before the appointed day in the Gold Coast ... shall as from that day together form part of Her Majesty's dominions under the name of Ghana...”"

When did Ireland cease to form part of His Majesty’s dominions with the King as its Head of State is a matter of legal, scholarly and political dispute. United Kingdom law provides that this happened on 18 April 1949. The United Kingdom position is set out in the Ireland Act 1949. However since the adoption of the Constitution of Ireland on 29 December 1937 Ireland’s form of government was in fact republican. A republic cannot form part of His Majesty’s dominions. For these reasons, the position of United Kingdom law and the position of Irish law conflict on this question.

Ireland as part of His Majesty’s dominions
Here’s more in the vein of Ireland’s constitution of 1937 - the one Ireland still has today - being a republican one:

“The 1937 Bunreacht na hÉireann is the REPUBLICAN CONSTITUTION which is the longest continuously in operation within the European Union (EU).” “Marie-Luce Paris;Popular Sovereignty and the Use of the Referendum – Comparative Perspectives with Reference to France; UCD publications, 2012”

“Cover note dated 23 April 1938 for a memorandum by John Hearne, the legal advisor to the Department of External Affairs who was primarily responsible for drafting the 1937 Irish constitution. The memo itself outlined some of the implications of the new constitution for the 1936 Act: ‘SO CLEARLY AND COMPLETELY IS THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION A REPUBLICAN CONSITUTION that, if no provision had been made in it validating the Executive Authority (External Relations) Act, 1936, in relation to the National Constitution, that statute would have lapsed, and legislation, even in the tenuous terms of that statute, would have been impossible. I hold that, so long as any prospect remains, of securing national unity on the basis of the Executive Authority (External Relations) Act, 1936, it would have been wrong to invalidate it altogether and thus deprive any Government which might be in office of that method of approach to the solution of the problem of national unity. The Constitution was designed to promote national unity not to prevent it’. To some degree, the retention of a link to the Commonwealth was seen as providing a possible basis for Irish unity in the future. (P150/2345. Papers of Éamon de Valera.)”

“[i]n invoking as prominently as [the 1937 Constitution] does some signal precepts of Catholic natural-law theology, the republican constitution invested in an act of recovery from a tradition that long antedated the much more recent celebration of popular sovereignty.” Constitutional Revolution By Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn, Yaniv Roznai; Yale University Press 2020



Under United Kingdom law the expression ‘His Majesty’s dominions’ means “all territories which ‘belong to’ the Crown or are in the ‘ownership’ of the Crown”. There is rarely any doubt under United Kingdom law, assuming the facts are established, whether a territory is within His Majesty’s dominions. It is necessary to show only that title is vested in the Crown. There have been occasional cases where the kind of title that the Crown had raised doubts about whether the territory in question formed part of His Majesty’s dominions. Such cases include certain lands leased to the United Kingdom in the region of Hong Kong, certain lands leased in Wei hai wei and Cyprus.

Title: New Ireland, old empire and the outside world, 1922-49: the strange evolution of a “dictionary republic” By Donal Lowry; MacMillan Press

“almost a decade after all monarchical forms had been expunged from the internal institutions of the Irish state...”

“We are an independent republic, associated as a matter of our external policy with the States of the British Commonwealth. To mark this association, we avail ourselves of the procedure of the External Relations Act... the King recognised by teh States of the British Commonwealth therein need acts for us, under advice, in certain specified matters in the field of our external relations... the British Commonwealth claims to be an elastic, growing, developing organism, and the statesmen of the Commonwealth have, I think, adopted the view of Joseph de Maistre that ‘In all political systems there are relationships which it is wiser to leave undefined’.”

Costello called it ‘pirouetting on the head of a pin’.

RIA website piece: “Ireland leaves the Commonwealth, 1949; 18 April 2019; John Gibney: “The British government’s reaction to this was relatively composed. The Irish government proceeded on the assumption that Ireland was an entirely sovereign independent country that was merely associatedwith the Commonwealth. The British government assumed that, despite their distaste for de Valeras's 1937 constitution, nothing had essentially changed. Crucially, neither insisted on its own interpretation. This remained the status quo until 1948.”

““On this day in 1949, the Republic of Ireland Act 1948, signed into law by President Seán T Ó Ceallaigh on 21 December 1948, came into force, formally ending the statutory role of the British monarchy in Ireland,” the President of Ireland Twitter account said.”

have included certain territory leased

Irish law provides

As a matter of United Kingdom law Ireland remained part of His Majesty’s dominions until 18 April 1949.

During the period from December 1936 to April 1949, some commentators consider that it was unclear whether the Irish state was a republic or a form of constitutional monarchy and (from 1937) whether its head of state was the President of Ireland or King George VI. The exact constitutional status of the state during this period has been a matter of scholarly and political dispute. The Oireachtas removed all references to the monarch from the revised constitution in 1936, but under statute law the UK's monarch continued to play a role in foreign relations, though always on the advice of the Irish Government. The state did not officially describe itself as the Republic of Ireland until 1949, when it passed legislation giving itself that description.

Frenchmalawi.

“91. The jurisdiction of the Free State was the island of Ireland38. The Northern Ireland Parliament gave notice, as it was entitled to do, that it did not wish to come under the jurisdiction of the Free State.39 In Re Logue [1933] 67 ILTR 253 it was held that, because the notice took e ect after the Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Eireann) had come into operation, most of those domiciled in Northern Ireland had become Irish citizens under Article 3 of the Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Eireann).40 38 Article 12 of the Schedule to the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922, s 5 of the Free State Constitution Act 1922, Article 3 of the Con-stitution of the Irish Free State. 39 Parliamentary papers of Northern Ireland pp191-192, see Bordering Two Unions: Northern Ireland and Brexit, de Mars, S & C. Murray, A. O’Donoghue and B. Warwick, Bristol 2018. 40 See The Celtic Cubs: the controversy over birthright citizenship in Ireland, Ryan, B. [2004] European Journal of Migration and Law, 6 (3) pp 173 – 193

Professor Douglas Savory MP:One of the greatest of our Dominion statesmen, Lord Bennett, former Prime Minister of Canada, who himself carried through the Parliament at Ottawa the Statute of Westminster—a great statesman and a very great lawyer—has used these words, in referring to the present Constitution of Eire: Is the presence of representatives of enemy States within the territory of a Dominion consistent with the provisions of the Statute of Westminster? Can the legations of warring enemies of the British Commonwealth of Nations be legally or honourably maintained within the territory of a member of that Commonwealth? Those questions were put by Lord Bennett, and he answered them at very considerable length in the negative. He said that it was "obviously an impossible and ridiculous situation."HC Deb 31 March 1944 vol 398 cc1769-801769

“The stubborn maintenance of the fiction that Eire was still a member of the Commonwealth, despite her neutrality and de Valera’s occasionally ambivalent protests to the contrary, reflected the Churchillian view, while the bargain with Eire involved in the creation of the special relationship demonstrates the Labour government’s pragmatic, unsentimental approach to relations with the Irish.” - Marquette pg. 382

“The lack of a description of the state in the Constitution in itself in no way affected its character. The state, said Mr. de Valera in 1937, “is a sovereign independent republic.” The form of government was in fact republican. It was only when the Constitution was interpreted with particular relation to the External Relations Act which had been passed a year earlier that any question of alleigance to the Crown, however oblique, was introduced... Mr. de Valera allowed that the arrangement made in the External Relations Act was unique. But then, he argued, that the situation it was designed to fit was also unique. On the one hand popular sovereignty and republican institutions combined to preclude membership of the British Commonwealth in its traditional form, on the other the existence of partition was thought to preclude outright secession. Neither, however, constituted a barrier to association from without.” - Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs’ By Nicholas Mansergh, pgs. 263-264.

“The one thing that had never been anticipated was the surreptitious advent of the Repubilc.“Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs’ By Nicholas Mansergh, pgs. 263-264.

When did Ireland legally become a republic? This is a question of law so we must look at the law. Well, United Kingdom law is very clear. United Kingdom law says that it happened in 1949. This is expressly set out in the Ireland Act 1949. In that Act it is provided that “It is hereby recognized and declared that the part of Ireland heretofore known as Eire ceased, as from the eighteenth day of April, nineteen hundred and forty-nine, to be part of His Majesty’s dominions.” So there is no doubt whatsoever that insofar as United Kingdom law is concerned, Ireland became a republic in 1949. Should we stop there? Should we accept that as the final answer and not consider anything else? Well, I don’t think so. The question, of course, is about Ireland so it makes sense that we also have to look at what Irish law says too. So, here goes, let’s look at Irish law:

1. Irish law removed the British king from its constitution in 1936. A secondary source that backs that up is “AN AMBIGUOUS OFFICE? THE POSITION OF HEAD OF STATE IN THE IRISH CONSTITUTION; JOHN COAKLEY; Irish Jurist; Irish Jurist; New Series, Vol. 48, 2012 pp 43-70. It includes QUOTE: “Two important Acts redefined the relationship between the State and the King. The first, the [Irish] Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act, which went through all stages in the Dail on 11 December 1936, terminated any role for the Crown in the domestic affairs of the Free State and removed all references to the functions of the Governor-General (whose last official act was, indeed, to sign this bill into law the same day) but left space for the Government, for purposes of international affairs to avail of any “organ” used by the other dominions. The second, the [Irish] Executive Authority (External Relations) Act, enacted the following day and signed by the Ceann Comhairle made provision for the King to “act on behalf of the Irish Free State”, on the advice of the government “for the purposes of the appointment of diplomatic and consular representatives and the conclusion of international agreements.” In line with de Valera’s earlier thinking on the place of the King in the Constitution, then, this matter was now resolved: provision for the King would be made only in legislation, not in the State’s basic law.” This is very clearly explaining that under Irish law teh King was taken out of the Constitution in 1936; long, long before 1949.

2. Internationally, the constitution of the Ireland is often described as a republican one. Here is another source describing it in those terms: “A Federal Republic: Australia's Constitutional System of Government” By Brian Galligan, Cambridge University Press page 122, QUOTE: “After the French Revolution the constitution for France’s First Republic was passed by referendum, as was Eire’s republican constitution in 1937 after that country finally won independence from Britain” That’s an impartial source clearly describing the Irish constitution of 1937 as a republican one.

3. Am I the only one who says that Irish law and United Kingdom law do not agree on when Ireland became a republic? No, of course I am not. There are secondary sources explaining that Irish and United Kingdom law do not agree on the point. Here is a secondary source in that vein: “In the ast thirty years, there have been three distinct experiments in the ordering of Anglo-Irish relations. Two of them have failed. The first was the experiment of Commonwealth membership embodied in the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 in which the status of the Irish Free State was specifically associated with that of the senior dominion, Canada, and generally with that of oversea dominions. That experiment MAY BE SAID TO HAVE COME TO AN END IN 1936-37 when the External Relations Act was passed and the new Irish constitution enacted with the sanction of popular approval in a plebiscite....THEN FROM 1936-49...EIRE OWED NO ALLIEGANCE TO THE CROWN AND WAS NOT, IN THE IRISH VIEW, A MEMBER OF THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS, BUT A STATE WHOSE ASSOCIATION WITH IT FROM WITHOUT was symbolized by the King’s signature to the letters of appointment of Irish representatives to foreign countries.” Ireland: The Republic Outside the Commonwealth by Nicholas Mansergh, International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 28, No. 3 (Jul., 1952), pp. 277-291, Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. [My EMPHASIS is added in parts of the above quote].

CONCLUSIONS: Secondary sources support the view that Irish law regarded Ireland as already having left the Commonwealth well before 1949. The British law view conflicts with that. There is a conflict of laws. One can properly say that as a matter of United Kingdom law Ireland left the Commonwealth in 1949. One cannot say the same thing as a matter of Irish law which holds that Ireland left the Commonwealth in 1936-1937. This is nothing new that’s being raised by me here. I have never suggested that either view must be accepted as correct. We on Wiki, simply have to report these historical matters, damn complicated though they may be. I’m sure we can all agree that law is often not simple. And simply saying that Ireland left the Commonwealth in 1949 doesn’t actually address that the position is more complicated than that.

Very happy to provide sources for the two changes to the article that I have suggested. I suggested that the article say: “[The Irish Free State] eliminated the British king from its Constitution in 1936.” A source that backs that up is “AN AMBIGUOUS OFFICE? THE POSITION OF HEAD OF STATE IN THE IRISH CONSTITUTION; JOHN COAKLEY; Irish Jurist; Irish Jurist; New Series, Vol. 48, 2012 pp 43-70. It includes QUOTE: “Two important Acts redefined the relationship between the State and the King. The first, the Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act, which went through all stages in the Dail on 11 December 1936, terminated any role for the Crown in the domestic affairs of the Free State and removed all references to the functions of the Governor-General (whose last official act was, indeed, to sign this bill into law the same day) but left space for the Government, for purposes of international affairs to avail of any “organ” used by the other dominions. The second, the Executive Authority (External Relations) Act, enacted the following day and signed by the Ceann Comhairle made provision for the King to “act on behalf of the Irish Free State”, on the advice of the government “for the purposes of the appointment of diplomatic and consular representatives and the conclusion of international agreements.” In line with de Valera’s earlier thinking on the place of the King in the Constitution, then, this matter was now resolved: provision for the King would be made only in legislation, not in the State’s basic law.

Is that source clear enough! It is explaining that the King was taken out of the Constitution - ‘eliminated’ was the word I’d used. An alternative analogous word is fine by me too if preferred. Is anyone seriously disagreeing that that’s not correct?

Next, I need to defend my suggestion of adding the sentence “A republican constitution was passed in 1937 changing the state’s name to "Ireland" and providing for an elected non-executive president as head of state.” The only bit that is new that I’ve suggested is that it is called a “republican constitution”. The rest of the wording about the change to the state’s name and it having an elected non-executive president is already in the article. So here “A Federal Republic: Australia's Constitutional System of Government” By Brian Galligan, Cambridge University Press page 122, QUOTE: “After the French Revolution the constitution for France’s First Republic was passed by referendum, as was Eire’s republican constitution in 1937 after that country finally won independence from Britain”

That’s an impartial source clearly describing the Irish constitution of 1937 as a republican one. I’m sure dozens of other sources in a similar vein could be dug out too. Again, are any of the editors here suggesting that it wasn’t a republican constitution? Where is the objection to this sentence!

Next, I suggested the sentence “Ireland severed its last ties with the Commonwealth in 1949”. Here’s a source for that too - “From War to Neutrality: Anglo-Irish Relations, 1921-1950, G. Boyce, British Journal of International Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Apr., 1979), pp. 15-36, QUOTE: “There was little to choose between Sir James Craig’s now notorious statement “a Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people” and de Valera’s nearly forgotten declaration “We are a Catholic nation”: the drive towards more radical independence between 1921 and 1938 finally completed by Costello’s government’s decision in 1948 to sever the last links with the Commonwealth were hardly compatible with Irish unity.”

Is anyone suggesting Ireland still had a connection with the Commonwealth after 1949? Ireland head used the King in appointing ambassadors until then. But the repeal of the External Relations Act saw that link severed. It was the last link. Again, is anyone disagreeing with the accuracy of teh sentence I’ve suggested?

Overall, what I’ve suggested is hardly radical. Very modest indeed. It’s just about eliminating a couple of inaccuracies from the lede. Frenchmalawi (talk) 00:54, 15 July 2019 (UTC)


 * Ok, you want more sources with regard to the Irish constitution being a republican one. Fair enough. Below I set out a few more. I have to admit to having been a little reluctant to do this because its republican nature is so obvious. Why obvious? Because it is the constitution of a country officially described as the REPUBLIC of Ireland today! It’s the very same constitution. If it provided for a King, it could hardly be a constitution of a country described as a REPUBLIC, could it? Well any way, that’s a digression. More sources is what you rquested, so fair enough:
 * ”The 1937 constitution was thus a republican constitution, even though de Valera was reluctant to describe it as such while partition endured.” ‘A New History of Ireland’, edited by Art Cosgrove, Oxford University Press.
 * ”The [1937 Constitution of Ireland] was self-consciously nationalist, strongly Catholic in tone and republican in aspiration.” The Catholic Church and the writing of the 1937 constitution Published in 20th-century / Contemporary History, Features, Issue 3 (May/Jun 2005), Volume 13 - by Prof. Dermot Keogh, Professor of History at University College Cork and Andrew McCarthy, Lecturer in History at University College Cork
 * ”The avowed aim” [of the Irish government under Eamon de Valera...]”was to eliminate the Treaty and monarchical symbols from the Constitution...[One commentator might describe the 1922 Constitution]...as “monarchical in external form, republican in substance and, withal, essentially democratic” this inner conflict remained for both the executive and legislative authority which flowed nominally from the Governor-General as the representative of the Crown was specifically declared to be vested in the people. THE CONFLICT WAS FINALLY RESOLVED IN 1937 ON THE SIDE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY, and Ireland’s formal relationship with the traditional type of dominion constitution was terminated.” - The Constitution of Ireland: Its Origins and Development, V. T. H. Delany, The University of Toronto Law Journal
 * ”Beginning with its formation in 1926, up through the passage of a republican constitution in 1937 that was recognized by Great Britain the following year, Fianna Fáil had successfully rescued the seemingly moribund republican movement from complete marginalization.”["Irish Blood, English Heart": Gender, Modernity, and " Third Way" Republicanism in the Formation of the Irish Republic”, Kenneth Lee Shonk, Jr., Marque e University
 * ”The enactment of a republican constution in 1937 to replace that of 1922, produced a further breach of Anglo-Irish relations...”Establishing Democracy:A Comparative Analysis of the Genesis and Stabilisation of Democracy in Indepedent 1918-1937, William Vincent Kissane.
 * ”More recently the Republic of Ireland itself has become a popular source of inspiration for Australian republicans. The Constitution of Ireland is touted as a good example of a modern democratic republican constitution.” [A non-academic source...website of the Australian republican movement]Irish republicanism in Australia, By David McKenna, 20 September 2010, www.independentaustralia.net
 * No


 * Here’s another secondary source in a comparable vein to Mansergh:
 * "By virtue of its 1937 Constitution, the Irish Free State changed its name to Eire and considered itself a republic."


 * ’From Empire through Commonwealth to...’, Professor L.C. Green, University of Alberta, Alberta Law Review, Vol. XVI.
 * Although I don’t like to quote politicians so much, as others have continued in that vein, de Valera speaking in 1945:
 * "WE ARE an independent republic since December 29, 1937, the day on which our new Constitution came into operation...'The State whose institutions correspond to these articles [of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland] is, it seems to me, demonstrably a republic. Look up any standard text on political theories; look up any standard book of reference and get from any of them any definition of a republic or any description of what a republic is and judge whether our State does not possess every characteristic mark by which a republic can be distinguished or recognised...The position as I conceive it to be is this: We are an independent republic associated as a matter of our external policy with the States of the British Commonwealth."

For my own reference
“At the meeting which took place on 16 November [1948] the Irish minister for external affairs, Sean MacBride, argued that Ireland had in fact been outside the Commonwealth since 1937 and repeal should have no effect on the legal situation. He reiterated Ireland’s desire for continued close association with the Commonwealth.’[Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 24, No. 96 (Nov., 1985), pp. 506-527; Canada, Ireland and the Commonwealth: The Declaration of the Irish Republic, 1948-9 by F. J. McEvoy][Paris discussions]

Government leaders, however, maintained that Ireland had already ceased to be a Commonwealth country.[H. V. Evatt, Australia and Ireland's Departure from the Commonwealth: A Reassessment by Frank Bongiorno, Irish Historical Studies Vol. 32, No. 128 (Nov., 2001), pp. 537-555 (19 pages), 2001 Cambridge University Press] MacBride believed that any [new] arrangement should be ‘based on the existing factual relations, devoid of all forms and formulae’; and it would need to recognise that Ireland had been out of the Commonwealth since 1937’. [Above source quoting “MacBride to Evatt, 15 October 1948 (Flinders University, Evatt Collection - Evatt - Overseas trip - 1948)]

Long tradition from 1st millennium, under influence of Rome and Byzantium, through to modern times. Examples: Constitutional references to God, Edict of the Emperor Henry V at Concordat of Worms, Treaty of Paris (1783), Treaty of Paris (1814), Byzantine-Russian Treaty of 911, Lateran Pacts of 1929, The Holy Alliance Treaty, Quadruple Alliance, The Treaty of London for Greek Independence, July 6, 1827. For diplomatic chancery, see Chancery (diplomacy), and Carolingian practice Government of the Carolingian Empire (chancery). Frenchmalawi (talk) 17:35, 20 October 2014 (UTC) The process of legitimization-selling the Agreement- came after the parties assented to the Good Friday text. (Sinn Fain should be excluded from this description; the party re- served its position, and ministers have been unclear as to whether it signed up to the agreement) .6 There were two demo- 6. Gerry Adams MP told the final plenary: "When we have democratically come to a conclusion we will let you know." IRISH TIMES, Apr. 11, 1998.Fordham International Law Journal; The Belfast Agreement Duncan Shipley-Dalton; Volume 22, Issue 4 1998 Article 11.

For my own reference
add

Ireland Act 1949
The United Kingdom's Ireland Act 1949 came into force on 18 April 1949 and recognised the end of the Irish state's status as a British dominion, which had been effected under the Irish Republic of Ireland Act 1948 brought into force in 1949. The 1949 Act was also used by the United Kingdom to "repair an omission in the British Nationality Act, 1948". The 1948 Act included provisions dealing specifically with the position of "a person who was a British subject and a citizen of Eire on 31st December, 1948". Because of this, how the British law would apply was dependent on a question of Irish law, namely, who was a "citizen of Eire"? The UK Government seriously misunderstood the position under Irish law. The UK Secretary of State for Home Affairs explained that:

""[w]hen British Nationality Act was passed the United Kingdom did not know that a person who was born in Southern Ireland of a Southern Irish father and on 6th December, 1922, was domiciled in Northern Ireland was regarded as a citizen of Eire under Eire law. They therefore considered that such a person became a United Kingdom citizen on 1st January, 1949 [in accordance with the British Nationality Act]"."

The impact of this was that many people in Northern Ireland were in theory deprived of a British citizenship status they would otherwise have enjoyed but for Irish law. This was an unintended consequence of the British Nationality Act.

The Secretary of State also explained the background to the mistake. He reported that under Irish law the question of who was a "citizen of Eire" was in part, dependent on whether a person was "domiciled in the Irish Free State on 6th December, 1922". In this regard he noted:

""The important date to bear in mind there is 6th December, 1922, for that was the date...the Irish Free State was constituted, and as constituted on 6th December, 1922, it consisted of the 32 counties with the six counties which now form Northern Ireland having the right to vote themselves out. They did so vote themselves out on 7th December, but on 6th December, 1922, the whole of Ireland, the 32 counties, was the Irish Free State and it was not until 7th December, the next day, the six counties having voted themselves out, that the Irish Free State became confined to the 26 counties. Therefore, the Eire law, by inserting the date 6th December, 1922, and attaching to that the domicile, meant that anybody domiciled inside the island of Ireland on 6th December, 1922, was a citizen of Eire.""

The amendment made to the British Nationality Act under the Ireland Act sought to address was intended to make it clear, in summary, that regardless of the position under Irish law, the affected persons domiciled in Northern Ireland on 6 December 1949 would not be deprived of a British citizenship status they would otherwise have enjoyed but for Irish law.

Section 5 of the 1949 Act conferred Citizenship of the UK and Colonies (CUKC) on any Irish-born person meeting all the following criteria:


 * 1) was born before 6 December 1922 in what became the Republic of Ireland;
 * 2) was domiciled outside the Republic of Ireland on 6 December 1922;
 * 3) was ordinarily resident outside the Republic of Ireland from 1935 to 1948; and
 * 4) was not registered as an Irish citizen under Irish legislation.

Separate to nationality law, the 1949 Act also provided that "citizens of the Republic of Ireland" (the British nomenclature adopted under the Act) would continue to be treated on a par with those from Commonwealth countries and would not be treated as aliens.

Ed.
Northern Ireland ceases to be part of the Irish Free State. An Address to cause this in accordance with the Anglo-Irish Treaty was presented to the King by both Houses of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Ede) speaking in the House of Commons in 1949 remarked:

"The important date to bear in mind there is 6th December, 1922, for that was the date under which, under an Act of this House, the Irish Free State was constituted, and as constituted on 6th December, 1922, it consisted of the 32 counties with the six counties which now form Northern Ireland having the right to vote themselves out. They did so vote themselves out on 7th December, but on 6th December, 1922, the whole of Ireland, the 32 counties, was the Irish Free State and it was not until 7th December, the next day, the six counties having voted themselves out, that the Irish Free State became confined to the 26 counties."

HC Deb 01 June 1949 vol 465 cc2235-51

Edit Irish Border


"The Irish Border is undoubtedly one of the most atypical of international boundaries. Its historical origins, geographical context, and administrative regime deviate from orthodox characteristics and functions associated with the description and analysis of boundaries."

"The Border measures 499 km (OSNI, 1999)..."

"As a remnant of seventeenth century county limits, the Border’s physical profile indicates that it follows many water courses but only in the highlands of the Cavan-Fermanagh section could the Border be said to accord with any significant physical impediments to movement."

"Even the very term “plantation of Ulster” was a misnomer as it applied to mid-Ulster, did not extend over all Donegal and was in- effectual in Cavan (Heslinga, 1979)"

"The signing of the Ulster Covenant and the establishment of an Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) were indicators of a growing militancy that was charismatically led by Sir Edward Carson. However, although great emphasis was placed on “Ulster” as a concept, ambiguity surrounded how “Ulster” was actually defined."

"Carson moved his own amendment to exclude all of Ulster’s nine counties, but this was implacably opposed."

"The Liberal government’s resolve was beginning to waver, and behind the scenes discussions were held concerning the permanency and geographical extent of a possible “statutory Ulster”."

"The fate of the counties of Fermanagh and especially Tyrone proved extremely problematic, despite the fact that they contained nationalist majorities, albeit relatively small ones. This was curious as Co Armagh contained a slight unionist majority was not a significant factor in discussions."

"...Redmond and Carson successfully persuaded their respective Ulster followers to consent to a six-county exclusion."

"the manner in which the Boundary Commission clause was drafted in the final document was only explicit in its ambiguity."

"The treaty debate in the Dáil was remarkable in its apparent obsession about oaths and status to the relative exclusion of partition."

"...not quote...Sean MacEntee was a "lone voice in warning that the commission would an exercise “in transferring from the jurisdiction of the Government of Northern Ireland certain people and certain districts which that Government cannot govern; and by giving instead to Northern Ireland, certain other districts—unionist districts of Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal, so that not only under this Treaty are we going to partition Ireland, not only are we going to partition Ulster, but we are going to partition even the counties of Ulster”( Official report: debate on the Treaty between Great Britain and Ireland, 1922: 155,(22 December 1921)."

"The passage of time was ensuring that the Border was acquiring inertia. While its final position was sidelined, its functional dimension was actually being underscored by the Free State with its imposition of a customs barrier from April 1923."

"That the base for partition, and thus the boundary, has been the county, is testament to the obsessive degree of attachment both unionists and nationalists have devoted. Indeed, while there was acquiescence in partitioning the country, and even the province of Ulster, this did not extend towards partitioning a county."

Border Facts 2
And indeed it’s hard to take it seriously when the states it divides can’t even agree about its length, the Republic claiming it is 280 miles (448km) and Northern Ireland authorities adamant that it is 303 miles (485km).

The only land boundary that the UK has with another country is the 488-km (302 mile) border with Ireland. Contemporary Britain By John McCormick; Palmgrave MacMillan 2012.

Same length cited in British Civilization: An Introduction By John Oakland

- p.g 96 is source for 280 miles etc.