Editing Foreign relations of Ireland (section)

==Ireland and the Commonwealth of Nations==

Ireland was a member state of the British Commonwealth from 1922 until 1949, initially as a [[Dominion]] called the [[Irish Free State]] from 1922 until 1937, when Ireland adopted a new constitution and changed the name of the state to "Ireland". Although the King's position was removed from the Constitution in 1936, but included in the [[External Relations Act 1936]] itself, a republic was only formally declared from 18 April 1949 when the [[Republic of Ireland Act 1948]] came into effect. 

Under the rules for membership at the time, a republic could not be a member state of the Commonwealth. Only a Dominion could be a British Commonwealth member state, along with [[King George VI]] as their head of state.

This was changed a week later with the adoption of the [[London Declaration]], then India became the first [[Commonwealth republic]] on 26 January 1950. King George VI became the first [[Head of the Commonwealth]] as a result.

Since 1998, some people in Ireland have advocated joining the [[Commonwealth of Nations]], most notably [[Éamon Ó Cuív]], [[Frank Feighan]], and [[Mary Kenny]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/?c=ireland&jp=mhkfauqlkfcw|title=More calls for Govt to rejoin Commonwealth|date=15 May 2007|website=Ireland Online News|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112213431/http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/?c=ireland&jp=mhkfauqlkfcw|archive-date=12 January 2008|access-date=2019-11-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/should-ireland-rejoin-the-commonwealth-2837823-Jun2016/|title=Is it now time for Ireland to consider rejoining the Commonwealth?|last=Feighan|first=Frank|website=TheJournal.ie|date=21 June 2016|access-date=2019-11-20|archive-date=27 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127230013/https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/should-ireland-rejoin-the-commonwealth-2837823-Jun2016/|url-status=live}}</ref>