eeply thankful patriots were that Eamon de Valera, who had suffered arid endured so much, and whose Christian charity had healed wounds that seemed unhealable, was privileged to be this historic nation’s lay head to welcome the Holy Father’s legate to that majestic gathering of the Catholic world upon the Irish shore!
VIII..—SIX YEARS’ LEGISLATION—1932-1937
Our story may be unfolded more rapidly as it deals with events fresh in the public memory. The year 1932 saw little progress beyond preliminaries. The annuities payments were discontinued and England responded by her penal tariffs on Irish produce. That egregious statesman, Mr. J. H. Thomas (the Right Honourable) accused Ireland of perfidy and did his utmost to make a difficult situation more difficult for his own country as well as ours. He fully believed, and so probably did most of England’s ill-informed statesmen, that the nation would renege its leader in order to escape the penal tariffs. De Valera called the bluff. A general election was held in January, 1933, in the depth of the sufferings of our farmers, and to the astonishment of all who don’t know Ireland, Fianna Fail came back triumphant—it was endorsed in its resolve to fight the issue out.
It was De Valera’s declared purpose, having abolished the oath, so that all groups could enter the legislature, to concentrate on economic measures, in order that the nation should be strong enough to stand whenever the constitutional issue should he taken up afresh. In both economic and constitutional matters, he was forced to move more rapidly than he had planned. As we noted in our introduction, the industrial revival was carried in five years so far towards self—sufficiency that its champions were themselves surprised. England’s tariff war, as we remarked, obliged Ireland to carry out fifty years’ programme in five.
In the constitutional field, De Valera was obliged to accept two challenges. The Governor-General of 1932 had done things which gave his office a place which the Republican Government could not grant; so he was removed, and a successor was appointed who performed the functions required in legislation, but no more. It was made plain that the office itself would be abolished in due course. The Senate, in turn, frustrated Government policy and had to be removed, to make way ultimately for a chamber that could not interfere with the decisions of the democratic House. When the Abdication crisis came in December, 1936, the Government was required to deal with a situation unparalleled in our history. The abdication of Edward VIII was accepted some twenty-four hours after he had ceased to be King of England; a point which in itself marked the constitutional independence claimed by the Irish State. Instead of accepting George VI as successor, it was enacted that henceforward the Speaker of the Dáil should sign Bills and perform other functions hitherto the duty of the King’s representative, the Governor-General— with herewith disappeared from the system. A second Act provided for recognition of the British Monarch as head of the British Commonwealth through whom the State might act in its external relations. The first Act established the Republican principle; the second was an act of Association. Both were carried without opposition. The odium which the Simpson affair had brought the British Monarchy at that hour bade obstruction. Even Unionists were glad to see the crisis passed with dignity and without conflict.
If the Abdication crisis had not come from without, the new situation would have been sought in the enactment of the new Constitution. Before that important measure was introduced, therefore, this had been achieved: The Irish State was substantially a Republic, and it was associated with the British Commonwealth, not by common citizens/tip, but by an Act of its own legislature which could be repealed at any time. The Constitution made a clean sweep of circumstances which conflicted with this position. This noble charter, dedicated to the glory of God and the honour of Ireland framed on Christian and de