President of Ireland/Talk

Eob: If after 1937 Ireland no longer had the British Monarch as its head of state, what was the point of the declaration of the 'Republic of Ireland' in 1949? -- SJK

If I recall correctly the 1937 constitution created a de facto republic which omitted any reference to the British monarch. However for some reason there was some fudging of the issue, probably so as not to offend the British who held onto the "treaty ports" until 1938. In fact the British continued to regard Ireland as part of the [Britids Commonwealth]?. (See http://www.guardiancentury.co.uk/1930-1939/Story/0,6051,127133,00.html for an interesting contemporary newspaper article.) The constution of 1949 on the other hand was unambiguous and was internationally recognised (even by the British). --Eob