Dev’s constitution may have flaws, but it has lived to a ripe old age

GERARD HOGAN, in his extended foreword to Dermot Keogh’s and Andrew McCarthy’s book, The Making of the Irish Constitution 1937, wonders if it is asking too much to give Eamon de Valera some credit where credit is due?

By so asking, Hogan acknowledges the depth of antipathy in some quarters, and indifference in others, towards the State’s primary architect. Twenty years of almost uninterrupted Fianna Fáil-led governments, and unprecedented political and economic progress, have meant that even members of that party no longer feel the need instinctively to defend, let alone champion, his legacy.

The bulk of the of more than 500 pages consists of reprinted extracts of early drafts of what became Bunreacht na hÉireann and are of interest only to the specialist reader. The meat — around 200 pages — is manageable even if those of a liberal bent will choke on Hogan’s foreword.