Nothing left in our Constitution but verbiage

It seems to me that the 1937 Constitution had two main objectives; one to make Republican ideology the State ideology and two to suck up to the Catholic Church for political power for Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil. 

These were then padded out with a lot of high sounding verbiage. We have more or less dumped the ideology and now that there are no more votes in it and it’s safe, we have dumped the Church and its special place. What’s left in our constitution is the verbiage.

The problem now is that the judiciary are taking it seriously and interpreting its broad provisions in ways never imagined by its framer. Their interpretation may produce a situation were constitutional provisions are repugnant to a majority of the people. It may be that the Judges are often wiser than popular opinion, but not always.

I believe we need a new check in our system and I would propose that we have an annual referendum in which all judicial constitutional decisions are subject to popular confirmation or rejection. Its implementation is probably complex and there is no room for detail here, but in a democracy surely the people should have the last say.

Gerry Moore

Donegal Cottage

Donegal (Townland)

Cobh

Co Cork