Religious Minorities and the Constitution of the Irish Free State, 1922-1937

Abstract

This article examines special constitutional provisions adopted in 1922 that were aimed at religious minorities in the Irish Free State. It analyses the origins and operation of the special provisions of the 1922 constitution of the Irish Free State aimed at protecting the rights of religious minorities and giving them a significant voice within the legislature. It also analyses how and why most of these safeguards were removed from the 1922 constitution and were not replicated in the 1937 constitution of Ireland that remains in force to this day. The conclusion argues that one of the weaknesses of the constitutional provisions aimed at religious minorities was that they did not openly include this objective in their wording. This facilitated the removal of almost all of these provisions in the 1930s while ignoring or openly denying that they were aimed at religious minorities despite ample historical evidence to the contrary.