IRISH FREE STATE

Eire?

"I propose to give you a constitution of the type the Irish people themselves would choose if Great Britain were a million miles away." Last November fiery, wild-eyed, Manhattan-born Eamon de Valera, President of the Irish Free State, bit these words off as distracted Britain stood on the brink of the Edward-Simpson crisis.

With Britain excited and distracted last week by prodigious preparations for crowning King George VI (see p. 19), President de Valera put his cards on the table, published the text of his new constitution, which more than fulfills the November promise. The people of the Irish Free State will vote on the constitution in June. If approved by a majority, the charter will come into force six months later and the Irish Free State, created in 1922 by the Anglo-Irish Treaty, will be nothing but a page in history.

Name. Eire, the old Irish name for Ireland, will be adopted not only for the Irish Free State but for "the whole of Ireland and its islands and territorial seas." Since Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom, those Irish who are loyal to King George considered this ultimatum highly presumptuous. For 14 years President de Valera has felt confident that partitioned Ireland will be reunited eventually and his constitution looks forward to that happy day. Until it dawns, "Eire" will be identified for legislative purposes with the present Irish Free State.

The President of Eire, with authority akin to that of a U. S. President, will be the State's No. 1 man, elected directly by the people for seven years and ineligible for a second term. He will appoint the prime minister, cabinet, judiciary, will be head of the defense forces, must pen his signature to bills passed by the legislature before they can become law. The President will not be answerable to the legislature, cannot be prosecuted for crimes civil or criminal, can be impeached only for ''treason or high crimes" by a two-thirds majority of the Senate. He will be advised by a council of state similar to Britain's Privy Council. Dubliners last week confidently expected Eamon de Valera to be the first to hold this powerful office.

Legislature. Eire will once more have a bicameral government, the Bail (lower house), the Senate (upper house). Year ago the Senate was abolished because it was a nuisance politically to de Valera's party, Fianna Fail. More than two-thirds of the 60 new Senators will be elected as representatives of the arts, agriculture, commerce, industry.

Other Provisions. Erse (Gaelic) will be the official language, with English as an alternate. No divorces will be permitted. Though the Roman Catholic Church will be recognized as "the guardian of the faith professed by the great majority of the citizens," religious freedom will be guaranteed to other denominations.

Status. Internally Eire will be "an independent democratic republic"; externally "a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations." Last December the Bail passed a bill abolishing the Governor General and leaving "the King only a vague title in the international affairs of the Irish Free State" (TIME, Dec. 21). The extent of this "vague title" is not outlined in the new constitution, which makes not a single mention of the King in all its 63 articles. Constitutional lawyers were scratching their heads in Britain last week wondering how Eire can claim to be a British Dominion if it rejects "the person of the King"--the Governor General. The perplexities of many Britons and Irish about the new State's position were summed up by the Irish Times when the December bill was passed: "The idea of a republic at home and a Dominion abroad may satisfy the President's metaphysical mind, and nobody ought to grudge him his satisfactions. Plain men, however, want to know where they stand."

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