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The Constitution of Ireland

Well done to Brian Cowen on his elevation as Leader of Fianna Fail, and soon the Premiership of Ireland. Ireland has enjoyed a boom of late. The past twenty years have reversed some one hundred and sixty, economically. Nevertheless, the celtic tiger economy has resulted in some moments of selfishness and lunacy; not least the proposal to concrete over Tara, which some are opposing.

Economic growth of a kind similar to that in England and Spain has also threatened to corrupt the culture of a free people as surely as globalist materialism did elsewhere. This latter fact may be of critical importance in the years that are to come, in which economic pressures and energy depletion must be met with community, localism, and agrarian populism of the sort that Ireland became Mistress of to survive.

It might be time for democrats truly interested in the survival of people to think about Article 45 of the Irish Constitution. It seeks to set out the directive principles of a free republic, and versions of it were incorporated into many post colonial constitutions. I thought that I would post it to suggest to any wandering reader what might be possible, though I should point out that the Declarative Principles cannot be legally enforced as primary rules, merely read when clarifying the nature, direction and effect of the tramlines upon which the state runs.

DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL POLICY

Article 45

The principles of social policy set forth in this Article are intended for the general guidance of the Oireachtas. The application of those principles in the making of laws shall be the care of the Oireachtas exclusively, and shall not be cognisable by any Court under any of the provisions of this Constitution.

1. The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the whole people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice and charity shall inform all the institutions of the national life.

2. The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing:

i That the citizens (all of whom, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood) may through their occupations find the means of making reasonable provision for their domestic needs.

ii. That the ownership and control of the material resources of the community may be so distributed amongst private individuals and the various classes as best to subserve the common good.

iii. That, especially, the operation of free competition shall not be allowed so to develop as to result in the concentration of the ownership or control of essential commodities in a few individuals to the common detriment.

iv. That in what pertains to the control of credit the constant and predominant aim shall be the welfare of the people as a whole.

v. That there may be established on the land in economic security as many families as in the circumstances shall be practicable.

3. 1° The State shall favour and, where necessary, supplement private initiative in industry and commerce.

2° The State shall endeavour to secure that private enterprise shall be so conducted as to ensure reasonable efficiency in the production and distribution of goods and as to protect the public against unjust exploitation.

4. 1° The State pledges itself to safeguard with especial care the economic interests of the weaker sections of the community, and, where necessary, to contribute to the support of the infirm, the widow, the orphan, and the aged.

2° The State shall endeavour to ensure that the strength and health of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children shall not be abused and that citizens shall not be forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their sex, age or strength.

Here's a beautiful Tracey Chapman song for no good reason that makes me think of places and women I love.

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