Features

The origins of the Irish constitution, 1928–1941

The first constitution of the new Irish state was innovative: it asserted the sovereignty of the people; it included a bill of rights, a guarantee of free elementary education, trial by jury and direct democracy (on the say-so of 75,000 electors). And it contained a provision allowing judicial review of legislation, which broke with the … Read more

‘No worse and no better’: Irish women and backstreet abortions

Addressing the jury in the course of George J.’s trial for using an instrument with intent to procure the miscarriage of his girlfriend Carrie D. in June 1945, Mr Justice McCarthy told the jurors that for the past ten or twelve years in Dublin ‘crimes of passion of the worst character have come before the … Read more