Historical re-enactment recreates drama that went into the State’s first Constitution

Before the Irish Free State could come into being there was first the business of the Irish Free State Constitution.

This vital document, which has been eclipsed by Éamon de Valera’s later version from 1937, set the template for democratic government in the new State.

Without its passage through the Dáil 100 years ago this week, the Irish Free State would not have come into existence as it did on December 6th, 1922.

The original chair of the constitutional committee was Michael Collins, but he delegated to Darrell Figgis. The all-male membership of the committee were Professor Alfred O’Rahilly, Professor James Murnaghan, Hugh Kennedy, John O’Byrne, Kevin O’Shiel, James McNeill and American lawyer Clemens J France.

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The Constitution was produced in just six weeks and drew from an enormous range of legal sources. It is best remembered now for the wrangling over the oath of allegiance to the British monarch and the inclusion of the Senate as a body for the minority Protestant population, but it was much more than that.

The first meeting of the committee was on January 27th, 1922 and the last report was in March 1922. The draft Constitution didn’t mention the oath which was included in the Anglo-Irish Treaty. A furious British prime minister David Lloyd-George sent the document back and the oath was included - albeit one that swore allegiance not to the British monarch, but to the “Constitution of the Irish Free State as by law established”. TDs would, instead, be merely “faithful” to King George V.

The Constitution was passed on October 25th by Dáil Éireann during the middle of the Civil War.

To mark the centenary of its passage, a theatrical reconstruction of the process that led to its drafting was held in the very room where it was agreed - the appropriately named Constitution Room in the Shelbourne Hotel.

It was based on documents in the National Archives surrounding the drafting of the constitution and was dramatised by About Blood in the Alley Productions. It was funded by the National Archives and the Courts Service.

The re-enactment was filmed in front of a tiny but very select audience of invited guests compromising of just 25 people including President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and the Chief Justice Donal O’Donnell.

National Archives director Orlaith MacBride said the dramatisation of the deliberations will make the Constitution accessible to a wider audience.

The livestreamed event was available from 7.30pm on Tuesday, October 25th, at https://youtu.be/SrzB_pYfrDQ