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Tue 02 Feb 2010The real meaning of living in a proper republic
The country’s power dynamic must change if we truly aspire to be a republic in which citizens come first, writes ELAINE BYRNE
OUR CONSTITUTION does not contain the word republic. Although the memory of the republic is rehearsed each year at the gravesides of Wolfe Tone and others, it has never been formally defined or officially acknowledged. John A Costello’s 1948 Republic of Ireland Act contains the wording: “It is hereby declared that the description of the State shall be the Republic of Ireland.” Yet the 209 words of the Act never actually clarifies what this description entails.
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