Scope
The Irish Republic claimed to encompass the whole island of Ireland. The declaration made no mention of the independence of the 32-county geographic island, just the independence of the 'Irish nation' or 'Irish people'. It was rivaled by the British administration of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, but as the Irish War of Independence went on it increased its legitimacy in the eyes of Irish people. It was superseded by the Irish Free State in 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Under international law the declaration satisfied the principle of the "declarative theory of statehood", but in 1919 almost all states followed the "constitutive theory of statehood", and therefore did not recognise the Irish Republic.
Read more about this topic: Irish Declaration Of Independence
Famous quotes containing the word scope:
“For it is not the bare words but the scope of the writer that gives the true light, by which any writing is to be interpreted; and they that insist upon single texts, without considering the main design, can derive no thing from them clearly.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“Each man must have his “I;” it is more necessary to him than bread; and if he does not find scope for it within the existing institutions he will be likely to make trouble.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“The scope of modern government in what it can and ought to accomplish for its people has been widened far beyond the principles laid down by the old “laissez faire” school of political rights, and the widening has met popular approval.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)