Editing Oath of Allegiance (Ireland) (section)

==De Valera and abolition==

When de Valera founded [[Fianna Fáil]] as the Republican Party in 1926, he and his party, though agreeing to contest elections, refused to take the Oath. However, the assassination of the [[Vice-President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|Vice-President of the Executive Council]], [[Kevin O'Higgins]], led the [[Cumann na nGaedheal]] government under [[W. T. Cosgrave]] to introduce a law requiring all Dáil ''candidates'' to pledge that they would take the oath, otherwise they could not contest the election. In these circumstances, de Valera took the Oath, declaring that he was simply signing a piece of paper to be admitted to the Dáil. In May 1933, de Valera amended the [[Constitution of the Irish Free State|Free State's constitution]] [at the time, amendable by simple majority in the Dáil], firstly to allow him to introduce any constitutional amendments irrespective of whether they clashed with the Anglo-Irish Treaty, then amended the constitution to remove Article 17 of the constitution which required the taking of the Oath.<ref name=RemovalAct1933 /> [[Robert Rowlette]], who was elected in October 1933, was the first TD who did not have to take the Oath.<ref name=dib>{{cite web|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/rowlette-robert-james-a7825|title=Rowlette, Robert James|work=[[Dictionary of Irish Biography]]|last=Long|first=Patrick|access-date=12 October 2022}}</ref>