New Constitution needed for a new 21st century Ireland

The centenary of the 1916 Rising would best be marked with the drafting of a new Constitution, not a new Proclamation, writes TP O’Mahony            

ALREADY we are seeing signs of some soul-searching as the centenary of the Easter Rising approaches, but the nation might be better served if the focus was not on the 1916 Proclamation but on the 1937 Constitution instead, and the need replace this with a document reflective of the very changed Ireland of the 21st century.

The Proclamation was never more than an inspirational and aspirational document, rich in rhetoric, some of it overblown, but bereft of any clauses approximating to a programme for socio-economic and socio-political change.