Sir, – Cían Carlin is mistaken in his letter (July 10th) about the descriptive name of the Irish sovereign state. Article 4 of the Constitution states: “The name of the State is Éire, or in the English language, Ireland.” On December 21st , 1948, the Oireachtas enacted the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 (Number 22 of 1948). Section 2 of that Act shows: “It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland”. It was the shortest Act passed by the Oireachtas. This was accepted by the British government and duly recognised when the Westminster parliament passed the Ireland Act 1949 in April that year. King George VI sent a gracious letter of congratulation to President Sean T O’Kelly. At the same time Ireland was excluded from the Commonwealth for being, in law, a republic. That was no loss. – Yours, etc,
GERARD CARTON,
Bar End Road,
Winchester,
Hampshire, England.