1. Origins

2. Design

3. External Great Seal

4. Supersession

5. See also

6. Footnotes

7. References
    Sources  Citations 

The Great Seal of the Irish Free State ({{lang-ga|Séala Mór do Shaorstát Éireann}}) is the seal which was used to seal official documents of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) by the Governor-General. The physical seal is currently on public display at National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks, Dublin.^[1]

Both sides of the Great Seal feature an image of the harp surrounded by the words "SAORSTÁT ÉIREANN" in Gaelic script. One side is engraved in silver, the other in copper.

After the 1937 Constitution of Ireland was enacted the Seal of the President of Ireland was struck as a replacement to the Great Seal. It is substantially the same as the former Seal but features the word "ÉIRE" instead of "SAORSTÁT ÉIREANN".

Origins

The Great Seal of Ireland was used in the English king's Lordship of Ireland, which in 1534 became the Kingdom of Ireland. The seal was retained by the Acts of Union 1800 for use by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the business of the Dublin Castle administration. The Government of Ireland Act 1920 retained the Lord Lieutenant and Great Seal for use by both Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty envisaged an Irish Free State to replace Southern Ireland, with a Provisional Government and Provisional Parliament until the Free State's constitution was enacted. The draft constitution replaced the Lord Lieutenant with a Governor General but made no explicit mention of the seal.

In August 1922 the Provisional Government's civil servants sought Ministerial approval to adopt a seal. It was thought necessary for legal reasons:^[2] The treaty and draft constitution specified that the Irish Free State would have the same constitutional status as the Dominion of Canada, which had its own Great Seal since its Confederation in 1867. The letters patent issued on 6 December 1922 constituting the office of Governor-General said:^[3]

The Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act 1922 also created a separate Governor and Great Seal for Northern Ireland.

Design

Regarding the design of the Great Seal, an approach was made by Hugh Kennedy, the Attorney General, to Thomas Sadleir, Registrar of the Office of Arms at Dublin Castle. In his reply Sadlier noted that he was "satisfied that the harp was very early in the 12th century an Irish badge...". The 1919–1922 seal of the revolutionary Dáil of the self-proclaimed Irish Republic showed a harp surrounded by the words "Sigullum Reipublicae Hibernicae — Seala Saorstáit Éireann".^[4] By contrast, the 1922 Provisional Government's seal was a quartering of the arms of the four provinces.^[5] The Provisional Government's private secretary suggested to Hugh Kennedy a similar seal for the Free State: "If considered desirable to symbolise in the design the present partition of Ulster, this could be done by leaving the Arms incomplete and broken at the corner.".^[6] George Sigerson, the President of the National Literary Society, recommended to Tim Healy, the new Governor-General, that the harp should be adopted as the symbol of the Free State. His view was that:^[2]

On 28 December 1922 a meeting of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State decided that the Celtic harp should be adopted.^[2] Later, in August 1923 the Executive Council determined that the "Brian Ború" harp in Trinity College, Dublin, would be the basis of the new seal. Archibald McGoogan of the Art Department of the National Museum perfected the design.^[2] Elements of the Ardagh Chalice were incorporated into the design of the Great Seal. Final authorisation was given by the Executive Council on 17 October 1924 for the provision of the various seals, including ministerial seals which had the Brian Ború harp circumscribed with "Saorstát Éireann" and the ministerial title in Irish and English. The rope pattern was a direct copy of the base of the Ardagh Chalice.^[2] Mabel McConnell, from a family of heraldic artists, was contracted by the Executive Council to make the sketches which the Royal Mint in England used to cast the die matrix for the seal.^[7] The Colonial Office objected that the design ought to have been submitted to the Privy Council and approved by Order in Council, but in 1925 the Mint fulfilled the commission regardless.^[8]

External Great Seal

In 1931, a separate External Great Seal or Royal Great Seal{{#tag:ref|The form "External Great Seal" was used in internal government documents when needed to distinguish it from the pre-existing "internal" Great Seal.^[9][14] The form "Royal Great Seal" was used in South Africa's 1934 statute creating a similar seal,^[10] and adopted by foreign scholars to describe the equivalent seal in any Commonwealth Dominion including the Irish Free State.^[11][12]|group="nb"}} was created to be used on diplomatic documents which required the signature of the monarch in London rather than the Governor-General in Dublin. Up to 1931, such documents had been transmitted to the Dominions Office and the British Great Seal of the Realm was applied alongside the signature.^[13] At the 1930 Imperial Conference, the Free State proposed that a Dominion should be allowed to send documents via its High Commissioner in London, bypassing the British government, and to affix its own seal rather than the British one.^[19] The conference subcommittee on seals resolved, "The subject should be postponed on the understanding that the whole question should be left for further discussion between Governments should occasion arise".^[14] In January 1931 the Free State government tested its proposed procedure; it applied the Free State seal to the instrument of ratification for a 1929 treaty between the Free State and Portugal, and sent it to High Commissioner John W. Dulanty to transmit to King George V.^[15] Dulanty was refused an audience, the British objecting on the grounds that the change in procedure had not been agreed.^[14][16] A compromise was negotiated whereby the Free State would use a separate "external seal" in the custody of its Minister for External Affairs.^[17] The external seal, designed by Percy Metcalfe, had on its reverse the same harp image as the 1925 "internal" seal, and on its obverse the same image of the monarch enthroned as the British Great Seal of the Realm,^[18] except for the quartered royal arms above the throne, where the English arms in first and fourth quarters were switched with the Irish arms in third quarter.^[19] George V formally presented the external seal to John W. Dulanty on 18 January 1932 at Sandringham House.^[20] Arthur Berriedale Keith commented that this marked "the final establishment of the complete international sovereignty of the Free State and the elimination of any British control".^[21]

The External Great Seal was used only on ratifications and Full Powers, and not always on the latter.^[22] Lesser seals were used on lesser documents:^[23]

• The "Signet Seal" on exequaturs (receiving foreign diplomats) and commissions (appointing Irish diplomats).
• The "Fob Seal" on the back of the envelope enclosing letters of credence or recall

The first use of the External Great Seal was not until 1937, for ratifying the Montreux Convention Regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt.^[24] Successive governments minimised the use of monarch and the External Great Seal.^[25] The state typically conducted bilateral agreements at inter-government level rather than the nominally more prestigious head-of-state level, so that the Minister for External Affairs would use the internal Great Seal for any documents.^[26] After signing some multilateral treaties that would have required the External Great Seal for ratification, the state chose instead to wait until the treaty had come into force and then become a party to it by accession rather than ratification, as the internal Great Seal would suffice for accession.^[27]

After the Statute of Westminster 1931, following the Free State's lead, the Union of South Africa in 1934^[10] and Canada in 1939^[28] passed laws permitting themselves to use their own Great Seals for diplomatic functions.^[12]

Supersession

The Constitution (Amendment No. 27) Act 1936 abolished the office of Governor-General and transferred his functions to the Executive Council, which thereafter used the internal Great Seal directly rather than advising the Governor General to use it. The Executive Authority (External Relations) Act 1936 continued the use of the External Great Seal by the King.^[23] The internal Great Seal was little used by 1936: there was already a separate Executive Council seal (similar to the Great Seal but with {{lang|ga|Ard-Chomhairle}} ({{Language with name/for|2=Irish|3="Executive Council"}}) added to the inscription^[29]) and in 1937 Éamon de Valera, who had been President of the Executive Council since 1932, said "I have no idea of what sort of seal that [the internal Great Seal] was. As well as I remember, I never saw a document sealed with it."^[30]

The 1937 Constitution of Ireland created the office of President of Ireland, and the Seal of the President was created for the President's formal signature of official documents in the same manner as the internal Free State seal had been used, and having the same design except substituting "Éire" for "Saorstát Éireann", since the constitution had changed the name of the state.^[31] The text on the reverse of External Great Seal was changed likewise, and the British monarch (now George VI) continued to sign diplomatic documents using it.^[32] This dichotomy reflected ambiguity over who was head of state. The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 transferred diplomatic functions to the President, rendering the External Great Seal obsolete.

See also

• Coat of arms of Ireland

Footnotes

References

Sources

• {{cite journal|last=Hanley|first=Hugh|year=2015|title='The Last Shadow': Negotiating the Great Seal and Direct Access to the King, 1931|journal=Irish Studies in International Affairs|publisher=Royal Irish Academy|volume=26|pages=257–274|doi=10.3318/isia.2015.26.13 |jstor=10.3318/isia.2015.26.13}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hood |first1=Susan |title=Royal Roots, Republican Inheritance: The Survival of the Office of Arms |date=2002 |publisher=Woodfield Press |isbn=9780953429332 |language=en}}
• {{cite book|last=Morris|first=Ewan|title=Our Own Devices: National Symbols and Political Conflict in Twentieth-century Ireland|series=New directions in Irish history.|year=2005|publisher=Irish Academic Press|isbn=9780716526636|chapter=‘Silent ambassadors of national taste’: seals, stamps, banknotes and coins of the Irish Free State}}
• {{cite journal |last=Stewart |first=Robert B. |year=1938 |title=Treaty-Making Procedure in the British Dominions |journal=The American Journal of International Law |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=467–487 : 480–485 |issn=0002-9300 |doi=10.2307/2191164 |jstor=2191164}}

Citations

• R-value (soils)
• R v Andrews
• Rvar
• RV Argo
• R v Asante-Mensah
• R v Askov
• RV Athena
• RV Atlantis
• RV Atlantis (AGOR-25)
• RvB
• RVB
• R v Badger
• R v Bailey
• R v Barger
• R. v Bartle
• R v Bartle
• R v Beaulac
• R. v. Beaver
• R v Belnavis
• R. v. big m drug mart
• R v B (KG)
• R v Blaue
• R v Boucher
• R v Brown
• R v. Brown