The Good Friday Agreement, 1998
by Desmond Clarke
Thus, consistent with its underlying principles, Irish nationalism copes with radical cultural diversity either by excluding those who do not fit neatly within its parameters (the 1937 solutions), or by including them without adequately recognising their distinctness (the Belfast Agreement solution). In either solution, the question left unasked is about the rationale for continuing to divide people living on the island of Ireland, in the late twentieth century, into distinct nations.
(33) Following the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution Act 1998 [signed into law on June 3, 1998] the amended Articles 2 and 3 were incorporated, provisionally, into Article 29. The latter specifies that the amended Articles 2 and 3 will replace the 1937 version of the same Articles, if a declaration is made by the Irish government within twelve months, or such longer period as may be determined by law, that the State has become obliged to implement the Agreement. Thus the amendments to Articles 2 and 3 were included in the amended Article 29, awaiting a final decision either to delete them from the Constitution or to relocate them as replacements for Articles 2 and 3. The relevant declaration was made by the Irish Government on December 2, 1999. The Constitution was thereby amended. The unique mechanism adopted for the proposed amendments is described in O'Donnell, "Constitutional Background to and Aspects of the Good Friday Agreement," 1999 (50) NILQ,76.
(34) Agreement Reached in the Multi-Party Negotiations, pp 33, 34. Cf Annex 2, Declaration on the Provisions of Paragraph (vi) of Article 1 in relationship to Citizenship, p 35, in which the phrase "the people of Northern Ireland" is defined.
(35) See note 33 above.
(36) Article 29 has also been amended so that the State may become bound
to honour the whole Agreement as an international treaty. |
