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Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution as originally enacted in 1937 contained a territorial claim over the six counties of Northern Ireland, which lay under de facto British sovereignty (as they still do today).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:
“There is no topic ... more soporific and generally boring than the topic of Ireland as Ireland, as a nation.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“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)
“The tragedy of Northern Ireland is that it is now a society in which the dead console the living.”
—Jack Holland (b. 1947)