Were De Valera’s personal Catholic views responsible for the religious elements in the Irish Constitution?

Were De Valera’s personal Catholic views responsible for the religious elements in the Irish Constitution?

Eamon De Valera put much effort into the making of the Irish Constitution. In fact he is said to have “helped to confirm the stable, constitutional direction of the independent Irish state. ” The Constitution is often referred to as “De Valera’s Constitution ” as it was something that he put so much effort and time into. Chubb has said that at times, De Valera seemed to see Catholicism and Irishness as the one and the same. He uses a reference from De Valera’s Patrick’s Day broadcast to demonstrate this; “Since the coming of St. Patrick, fifteen hundred years ago, Ireland has been a Christian and a Catholic nation. All the ruthless attempts made down through the centuries to force her from this allegiance have not shaken her faith. She remains a Catholic nation.”

Did De Valera recognise the Catholic Church had a special place in the eyes of the Irish State because of his own personal conviction? Or was he simply catering for the masses that were the new Irish State?

Fr John Charles McQuaid was a close family friend of Eamon De Valera. He had thought De Valera in school and was a prominent figure in the Catholic education system. These close family ties could suggest that this was De Valera trying to put his own personal stamp on the new constitution. It seems likely that he first became casually involved in the drafting of the constitution in autumn of 1936. It is obvious that De Valera took Dr. McQuaid’s council to be very important, as he is quoted to have said “The parts he approved of then have never been questioned, the parts he disapproved of have been criticised. ” From early in the next year McQuaid was co...

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...e and have a new all-inclusive constitution unlike the one that went before.

Works Cited

Cahill, Edward to De Valera 22 March 1932. Edward Cahill papers, Jesuit Archives, 35 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2

Casey, J, Constitutional Law in Ireland (Longon 1987)

Chubb, Basil, The Politics of the Irish Constitution (Dublin 1991)

Farragher, Seán, “Dr McQuaid, Éamon de Valera and the Constitution,” Blackrock College Annual 1987 FIND

Farrell, Brian, Chairman or Chief? – The role of Taoiseach in Irish Government (Dublin 1971)

Keogh, Dermot and McCarthy, Andrew J, The Making of the Irish Constitution 1937: Bunreacht na hÉireann (Cork 2007)

Longford, Earl of and O’Neill, Thomas P, Éamon De Valera (London, 1970)

“DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES” P150 (PAGE 235 OF KEOGH APPENDIX AND 108 OF ACTUAL BOOK)

Whyte, John, Church and State in Modern Ireland 1923-1979 (Dublin 1980)