Enactment of the Constitution of Ireland

The current Constitution of Ireland came into effect on 29 December 1937, having been enacted by a national plebiscite on 1 July 1937 of voters in what was then the Irish Free State. The Constitution was closely associated with Éamon de Valera, the President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State at the time, who was personally eager to replace the Constitution of the Irish Free State.

The Constitution of Ireland replaced the Constitution of the Irish Free State, whose coming into force on 6 December 1922 marked the state's independence from the United Kingdom.

The original text of the 1922 Constitution was a schedule to the Constitution of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Eireann) Act, 1922, passed by the Third Dáil sitting as a "Constituent Assembly" on 25 October 1922. This Act has subsequently been regarded by Irish courts as sufficient in itself to bring the Constitution into effect. However, the view of the British government at the time was different, and the UK Parliament passed on 5 December 1922 its own act, the Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922, with the entire Irish Act as a schedule, to give effect to the Constitution in British law.

Under the 1922 Constitution amendments were governed by Article 50. Article 50, at the time the 1937 Constitution was adopted, provided that constitutional amendments could be enacted by the Oireachtas (parliament) under the same procedure used for the adoption of ordinary laws. De Valera's government repudiated the 1922 Constitution as an unrepublican, foreign imposition and so deliberately provided that the new constitution would be adopted by in a manner outside the terms of the 1922 Constitution.

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