A Republic, Is It?

Deputy James Dillon itched with a question. In the Dail Eireann he put it to Prime Minister Eamon de Valera: "Are we a republic, or are we not?"

Up rose the Taoiseach, the solemn man. Said he: "If that is all you want to know, Eire is a republic." Then down he sat.

Deputy Dillon nearly swallowed his Adam's apple. "Will anyone tell me," he said, "when we became a republic?" Mr. de Valera merely smiled.

A few days later he replied. Eire, he announced, became an independent republic on Dec. 29, 1937, when its Constitution became operative; in external policy it was associated with the States of the British Commonwealth. The Prime Minister's desk was stacked high with dictionaries and encyclopedias, into which he dipped unsmilingly for definitions of "republic." Then he defied his critics:

"If any one still persists in maintaining that our State is not a republic I cannot argue with him for we have no common language."

Cried Deputy Dillon: "When we ask the Prime Minister what we are, he says, 'Look at the British encyclopedia.' " Said Deputy Opposition Leader Dr. Thomas O'Higgins, the wag: De Valera's dictionary republic was two-headed--one head was an elected President within the state, the other a crowned King outside. It was most peculiar.

Said Eamon de Valera: "We have no two heads of our state. There is one head, elected by the Irish people, and none other. In our external relations we use the head of the group of states with which we are associated for certain restricted purposes. . . ."

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