Editing Constitution of Ireland (section)

===Drafting process===
De Valera personally supervised the writing of the Constitution.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forde |first1=Michael |last2=Leonard |first2=David |title=Constitutional Law of Ireland |date=1 July 2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury Professional |location=Dublin |isbn=9781847667380 |pages=Paras. 1.08-1.09 |edition=3rd}}</ref> It was drafted initially by [[John Hearne (lawyer)|John Hearne]], legal adviser to the [[Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade(Ireland)|Department of External Affairs]] (now called the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kane |first1=Conor |title=Tributes paid to 'real architect' of 1937 Constitution |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/tributes-paid-to-real-architect-of-1937-constitution-1.3139687 |access-date=28 December 2023 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=30 June 2017}}</ref> It was translated into [[Irish language|Irish]] over a number of drafts by a group headed by Micheál Ó Gríobhtha (assisted by Risteárd Ó Foghludha), who worked in the Irish Department of Education. De Valera served as his own External Affairs Minister, hence the use of the Department's Legal Advisor, with whom he had previously worked closely, as opposed to the Attorney General or someone from the Department of the President of the Executive Council.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cahillane |first1=Laura |title=The Irish Constitution has served us well for the most part |url=https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/the-constitution-has-served-us-well-for-the-most-part-3702649-Nov2017/ |access-date=28 December 2023 |work=TheJournal.ie |date=18 November 2017 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Maxwell |first1=Nick |title=Bunreacht na hÉireann: a study of the Irish text, Micheál Ó Cearúil. (Coiste Uile-Pháirtí an Oireachtais ar an mBunreacht/The All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, £15). ISBN 0707664004 |url=https://www.historyireland.com/bunreacht-na-heireann-a-study-of-the-irish-text-micheal-o-cearuil-coiste-uile-phairti-an-oireachtais-ar-an-mbunreachtthe-all-party-oireachtas-committee-on-the-constitution-15-isbn-0707664004/ |website=History Ireland |access-date=28 December 2023 |date=8 February 2013}}</ref> He also received significant input from [[John Charles McQuaid]], the then President of [[Blackrock College]], on religious, educational, family and social welfare issues.<ref name="irishtimes.com"/> McQuaid later became, in 1940, the Catholic [[Archbishop of Dublin (Roman Catholic)|Archbishop of Dublin]]. Other religious leaders who were consulted were Archbishop [[Edward Joseph Byrne|Edward Byrne]] (Roman Catholic), Archbishop [[John Gregg (Archbishop of Armagh)|John Gregg]] (Church of Ireland), William Massey (Methodist) and [[James Alexander Hamilton Irwin|James Irwin]] (Presbyterian).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hogan |first1=Gerard |title=Origins of the Irish Constitution 1928-41 |date=2012 |publisher=Royal Irish Academy |location=Dublin |isbn=9781904890751 |page=215}}</ref>

There are a number of instances where the texts in English and Irish clash, a potential dilemma which the Constitution resolves by favouring the Irish text even though English is more commonly used in the official sphere.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forde |first1=Michael |last2=Leonard |first2=David |title=Constitutional Law of Ireland |date=1 July 2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury Professional |location=Dublin |isbn=9781847667380 |pages=Para. 2.31 |edition=3rd}}</ref>

A draft of the constitution was presented personally to the Vatican for review and comment on two occasions by the Department Head at External Relations, Joseph P. Walsh. Prior to its tabling in [[Dáil Éireann (Irish Free State)|Dáil Éireann]] and presentation to the Irish electorate in a plebiscite, Vatican Secretary of State [[Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli]], the future Pope Pius XII, said of the final amended draft: "We do not approve, neither do we disapprove; We shall maintain silence."<ref>Emmett Larkin, of the University of Chicago in Church, State, and Nation in Modern Ireland, 1975; The Historical Dimensions of Irish Catholicism, 1976; Irish Times 25 November 2006 by Stephen Collins based on Republic of Ireland state papers released under 30-year rule.</ref> The ''quid pro quo'' for this indulgence of the Catholic Church's interests in Ireland was the degree of respectability which it conferred on De Valera's formerly denounced republican faction and its reputation as the 'semi-constitutional' political wing of the 'irregular' anti-treaty forces.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/0022/D.0022.192803210025.html |title=Dáil Éireann - Volume 22 - 21 March, 1928 - PRIVATE DEPUTIES' BUSINESS. - REVIEW OF PRISONERS' CASES—PROPOSED SELECT COMMITTEE |access-date=13 August 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090404160152/http://www.oireachtas-debates.gov.ie/D/0022/D.0022.192803210025.html |archive-date=4 April 2009 }}</ref>

During the Great Depression, as social polarisation generated campaigns and strikes, Catholic social jurists aimed to forestall class conflict. Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and clericalist advisors such as John Charles McQuaid considered constitutional provisions to incorporate land redistribution, credit system regulation, and welfare rights. Late in the drafting process, however, de Valera re-wrote these initially robust socio-economic rights as non-binding 'directive principles', primarily to satisfy the Department of Finance's preferences for minimal state spending. In line with Ireland's banks and grazier farming interests, the final wording thus preserved the state's existing currency and cattle trading relations with the United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Murray|first=Thomas|date=2016|title=Socio-Economic Rights and the Making of the 1937 Irish Constitution|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07907184.2015.1095738|journal=Irish Political Studies|language=en|volume=31|issue=4|pages=502–524|doi=10.1080/07907184.2015.1095738|s2cid=146146322|issn=0790-7184|access-date=4 January 2021|archive-date=8 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210108053403/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07907184.2015.1095738|url-status=live}}</ref>