A simple quiz question might be “Is Co. Monaghan in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland?” It’s a trick question. While it’s not in Northern Ireland, there is no State or jurisdiction called the Republic of Ireland. The late Justice Brian Walsh, one of the outstanding jurists of his generation, had the following observations to make back in the 1980’s in his foreword to Professor William Binchy’s book Irish Conflicts of Law: “…English Courts seem to suffer from confusion regarding the name of our State. This is possibly due to the United Kingdom statute, the Ireland Act, 1949, which purported to provide that this State should be “referred to .. by the name attributed thereto by the law thereof, that is to say, as the Republic of Ireland”. It is difficult to understand how such an error could have been made as, of course, the name which Irish law attributes to the State is “Ireland”, as it has been for fifty years, by Article 4 of the Constitution and which was so acknowledged by a communique from No. 10 Downing St., in 1937.”
Justice Walsh was not willing to let matters rest with a valuable history lesson as this confusion over the name of our State clearly exercised him greatly. He went on to say “regrettably some of our statutory semi State bodies seem to be infected with a similar confusion. There is only one State in the world named “Ireland” and references in contracts to the applicable law as “the law of the Republic of Ireland” or “the law of the Irish Republic” are wrong. Whatever justification may exist for English confusion there is none whatever for Irish ignorance.”
I am looking forward to the publication of the long over due second edition of that outstanding legal publication by Professor Binchy which is an essential text for cross border legal practitioners.
Fergal McManus, Solicitor and Chartered Tax Adviser