IRISH FREE STATE: Comparatively Heaven

Comparatively Heaven

President Eamon de Valera slants one patient eye ahead to the day when his Irish Free State will be a republic. He took three strides toward that day last week when he pushed through the Dail Eireann three bills to amend the Free State Constitution. The first seeks to abolish the legislative veto power of the Free State’s Crown-appointed Governor General, now in fact a good Irishman, Domhnall Ua Buachalla (Daniel Buckley) whom George V has never seen and whom he appointed on President de Valera’s advice. The second bill abolishes the right of London’s Privy Council, upon appeal, to override decisions of Free State Courts. The third bill transfers to the Cabinet, without reservation, all the Governor General’s powers in initiating money bills. Having jammed these measures through the Dail, President de Valera resigned himself to an 18-month stymie. He knew that the Opposition-controlled Seanad (Senate), which sits in what was once the National Museum of Irish Antiquities, will refuse to pass the amendments, but, having passed the Dail and been refused by the Senate, they become law after 18 months. Before the Dail adjourned last week, President de Valera rose from the Govern-ment bench and spoke to all roily young Irishmen. He recalled the blood-letting last fortnight between General Owen O’Duffy’s blue-shirted Fascists of the Right and de Valera’s impatient followers of the Leit (TIME, Oct. 16). Sternly he admonished: “I admit everything is not all right in the country. But it is heaven compared with what existed before. I ask you to abandon this nonsense of Blue Shirts. I warn all concerned, if the two extreme wings of the country are going to create trouble we will organize the sane people and knock the heads of both parties together, should they continue their nonsense.”