page_title: Constitution of the Irish Free State
section_title: Method of amendment
hierarchical_section_title: Constitution of the Irish Free State / Amendments / Method of amendment
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: pečeť irského sovbodného státu Deutsch: Großes Siegel des Irischen Freistaates mit der Irischen Harfe als Siegelbild und der Umschrift in irischer Sprache „Saorstát Éireann“ English: reverse of the Great Seal of the Irish Free State Gaeilge: Séala Mor do Shaorstát Éireann
context_page_description: The Constitution of the Irish Free State was adopted by Act of Dáil Éireann sitting as a constituent assembly on 25 October 1922. In accordance with Article 83 of the Constitution, the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922 of the British Parliament, which came into effect upon receiving the royal assent on 5 December 1922, provided that the Constitution would come into effect upon the issue of a Royal Proclamation, which was done on 6 December 1922. In 1937 the Constitution of the Irish Free State was replaced by the modern Constitution of Ireland following a referendum.
  As enacted, the Constitution of the Irish Free State was firmly shaped by the requirements of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that had been negotiated between the British government and Irish leaders in 1921. However, following a change of government in 1932 and the adoption of the Statute of Westminster a series of amendments progressively removed many of the provisions that had been required by the Treaty.
  The Constitution established a parliamentary system of government under a form of constitutional monarchy, and contained guarantees of certain fundamental rights.
context_section_description: The procedure for adopting constitutional amendments was laid out in Article 50. This foresaw that amendments would first be approved by both houses of the Oireachtas, then submitted to a referendum, and finally receive the royal assent from the Governor-General. However, as already noted, the requirement for a referendum was postponed by the Oireachtas so that during the entire period of the Irish Free State the Constitution could be amended by means of an ordinary law. As noted above it was originally provided that any amendments that violated the Anglo-Irish Treaty would be inadmissible, but this sole restriction was removed in 1933.
  The Oireachtas readily used its powers of amendment so that, during the 15 years of the Constitution's operation, 25 formal constitutional amendments were made. This can be contrasted with the fact that, during its first 60 years, the current Constitution of Ireland was amended only 16 times. In addition to the adoption of constitutional amendments, the courts ruled that the Oireachtas could also implicitly amend the constitution. When the Oireachtas adopted the Public Safety Act 1927, which affected civil rights, it included a section requiring that should the act be found to be unconstitutional it would be treated as a constitutional amendment. Section 3 of the act provided that:
  Every provision of this Act which is in contravention of any provision of the Constitution shall to the extent of such contravention operate and have effect as an amendment [...] of the Constitution.
  In the Attorney General v. McBride (1928) it was ruled that this kind of section was unnecessary because even if a law did not contain such a provision it could be interpreted as a tacit amendment of the constitution anyway, owing to the doctrine of implied repeal. This meant that, in addition to formal amendments, almost any act of the Oireachtas could be considered an amendment of the constitution. The long process of ad hoc amendment that occurred until 1937 meant that, by the time it was replaced the constitution had become, according to President (of the Executive Council) Éamon de Valera, a "tattered and torn affair".
  While Article 50 provided for the amendment of the constitution proper, there was no explicit provision in any law for the amendment of the Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) Act 1922. Some jurists therefore maintained that the Oireachtas did not have power to amend the Act; rather, if it were possible to alter the law at all, it might be necessary to ask the British Parliament to do so, or to elect another constituent assembly. Chief Justice Kennedy was among those who took the view that the act could not be altered by the Oireachtas. Nonetheless changes were eventually made to the act, when the Oireachtas passed the Constitution (Removal of Oath) Act 1933, and when it was repealed in its entirety with the adoption of the 1937 constitution.
  When the new constitution was drafted lessons had been learned from the Free State constitution. It too granted the Oireachtas a temporary power to make constitutional amendments by ordinary law, but, unlike the Free State constitution, it expressly forbade the legislature from using this power to extend the transitional period. Article 46 of the new constitution required that constitutional amendments be approved by referendum while Article 51 of the Transitory Provisions suspended this requirement for an initial three years (beginning when the first president assumed office). However Article 46 forbade the legislature from amending either itself or Article 51. In the event the Oireachtas used its transitional power only twice, when it adopted the First Amendment and the Second Amendment. The new constitution then settled down and was not amended again for thirty years. Another difference from the Free State constitution is that the modern constitution requires constitutional amendments to be expressly identified as such. Every amendment must have the long title "An Act to amend the Constitution".
caption: The Great Seal of the Irish Free State, used in the state from 1924.
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