Irish Head of State From 1936 To 1949 - Constitutional and Legal Changes of 1936

Constitutional and Legal Changes of 1936

As founded in 1922, the Irish Free State was headed by the monarch but most of his functions were performed on his behalf by the Governor-General. An amendment made to the Free State constitution in 1936 changed all this. The Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936 abolished the post of Governor-General in constitutional law and transferred most of the King'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 (head of government) was explicitly vested in Dáil Éireann (the lower house of parliament), and the power to promulgate legislation was transferred to the Ceann Comhairle (chairman) of the Dáil. However the constitutional amendment also provided, without mentioning the monarch specifically, that he might continue to represent the state abroad:

..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 then British Commonwealth, who at that time all shared the British monarch as head of state. The External Relations Act, adopted shortly after the constitutional amendment, gave life to this provision by providing that:

..so long as 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 for the like purposes as and when advised by the Executive Council so to do.

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