The Partition of Ireland and the 1922 Constitution

This chapter reflects upon the missing elements of the 1922 Constitution which are nonetheless of fundamental importance to understanding the transformation in Ireland’s governance arrangements at this juncture. In December 1922, Northern Ireland refused to join the Irish Free State’s new constitutional order, as everyone involved in the process foresaw. But the uncertainty around partition meant that the Constitution did not engage with the legal process of creating (and mitigating) a border on the island of Ireland. The border itself would not be regarded as settled until the Agreement to set aside the Boundary Commission Report in late 1925. The 1922 Constitution, for good and ill, therefore neglected some of the defining aspects of the new constitutional dispensations on the island. This chapter explores how these measures and interactions affected the relationship between Ireland’s new constitutional orders at the time and in the subsequent decades.