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What happens when a constitution outlives some of the values of the society that created it?
In this episode of Language for Living, I explore Article 41.2 of the Irish Constitution, often referred to as the “woman in the home” provision ,and the ideas about women, motherhood, care and family that shaped its drafting in 1937.
I look at Éamon de Valera, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and Fr John Charles McQuaid, later Archbishop of Dublin, before turning to the bigger constitutional questions: What is a constitution actually for? How much should the intentions of its drafters matter? And should constitutions be understood as fixed texts or living documents?
Finally, I return to Ireland’s 2024 Care referendum and ask what we can — and importantly, what we cannot — conclude from the public’s overwhelming rejection of the proposed replacement for Article 41.2.
At the heart of the episode is a question: what should we do when the words of a constitution remain the same, but the society living under them changes?
Further reading 📚
- Laura Cahillane, ‘Revisiting Article 41.2’ (2017) 40 Dublin University Law Journal. For the history, interpretation and continued controversy surrounding the “woman in the home” provision.
- Houses of the Oireachtas Library & Research Service, Article 41.2 of the Constitution: Women in the Home (L&RS Note, 27 June 2018). A particularly useful overview of the origins of Article 41.2, its interpretation and the history of proposals to amend it.
- Maria Luddy, ‘A “Sinister and Retrogressive” Proposal: Irish Women’s Opposition to the 1937 Draft Constitution’ (2005) 15 Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 175–195. For the contemporary opposition of Irish women, including Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, to the treatment of women in the draft Constitution.
- Finola Kennedy, ‘Two Priests, the Family and the Irish Constitution’ (1998) 87(348) Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review 353–364. For the influence of Catholic thinking and Fr John Charles McQuaid on the constitutional treatment of the family.
- Gerard Hogan, The Origins of the Irish Constitution 1928–1941 (Royal Irish Academy 2012). For the wider drafting history of Bunreacht na hÉireann, including de Valera and the political, legal and religious actors involved in its creation.
- McGee v Attorney General [1974] IR 284. A landmark Irish constitutional case relevant to the idea that constitutional interpretation cannot simply remain frozen in the conditions that existed when the Constitution was adopted.
- An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Electoral Commission), Referendums on Family and Care (2024). For the official explanation of the proposed constitutional amendments and the outcome of the two referendums held on 8 March 2024.
- An Coimisiún Toghcháin (Electoral Commission), Family & Care Referendums Voter Survey Report (National Election and Democracy Study 2025). For the post-referendum research into how and why people voted as they did — particularly useful for understanding why a No vote cannot simply be treated as an endorsement of the existing Article 41.2.
Language for Living with Dr Zoe Chitare gives language to the ideas, structures and invisible rules that shape our everyday lives.
