Ireland
Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution as originally enacted in 1937 contained a territorial claim over the six counties of Northern Ireland, which lay under de facto British sovereignty (as they still do today). In particular, Article 2 stated that "he national territory consists of the whole island of Ireland". This was regarded by unionists in Northern Ireland as an illegal extraterritorial claim, and encountered some hostility. In 1999 the Republic of Ireland revised Articles 2 and 3 as part of the Northern Ireland peace process to remove the explicit territorial claim: they now provide merely that "t is the entitlement and birthright of every person born in the island of Ireland... to be part of the Irish Nation". The Ulster Unionist Party has accepted the revision of the articles, but the larger Democratic Unionist Party has not.
Read more about this topic: Exclusive Mandate
Famous quotes containing the word ireland:
“Life springs from death and from the graves of patriot men and women spring living nations.... They think that they have pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools, they have left us our Fenian dead, and while Ireland holds these graves Ireland unfree shall never be at peace.”
—Patrick Henry Pearse (1879–1916)
“Out of Ireland have we come,
Great hatred, little room
Maimed us at the start.
I carry from my mother’s womb
A fanatic’s heart.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“It is often said that in Ireland there is an excess of genius unsustained by talent; but there is talent in the tongues.”
—V.S. (Victor Sawdon)