Irish Head of State From 1936 To 1949 - Constitution of 1937

Constitution of 1937

The Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, filled the gap left by the abolition of the King's Governor-General by creating the post of a directly elected president. The President of Ireland 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. 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.

Nonetheless the government of Éamon de Valera, despite its long-term goal of republicanising the Irish state, consciously chose not to declare a republic, and decided to name the state simply 'Ireland' or 'Éire', rather than the 'Republic of Ireland' or the 'Irish Republic'. Thus the new constitution did not explicitly declare that the President would be head of state, providing merely that he would "take precedence over all other persons in the State". Nor did the new document mention the word 'republic'. Most crucially, Article 28 of the new constitution mirrored Article 51 of its predecessor, by permitting the state to allow its external relations to the be exercised by the King. Article 28.2 provided that:

This provision meant that the External Relations Act continued to have the force of law until the legislature decided otherwise, and so the King, as head of the Commonwealth, continued to represent the state abroad.