Donie Cassidy (Fianna Fail)

The Constitution, which was 70 years old on 29 December last, is one of the oldest written constitutions in Europe. "Few things have shaped and controlled Irish political and legal culture as decisively as the Constitution of Ireland." So writes the eminent Professor Gerard Hogan in the foreword to a remarkable, new documentary study on the Constitution by Dermot Keogh and Andrew McCarthy.

Few could have foreseen, with the coming into force of the Constitution, that this document would survive largely intact into the very different Ireland of today. Our Constitution has stood the test of time. While there have been amendments relating to matters such as the unborn child, divorce, voting rights, the European Union, citizenship and Northern Ireland, the very fact of these amendments demonstrates one of the most powerful features of the Constitution, namely, the people's right to charter the destiny of the nation.

Much of the case for a new constitution to replace the Free State Constitution was the need to make perfectly clear that the source of authority in Ireland is the people. Hence the preamble states: "We, the people of Éire ... do hereby adopt, enact, and give to ourselves this Constitution." Article 6 states: "All powers of government ... derive, under God, from the people". With Bunreacht na hÉireann, there was a desire to give the State all the characteristics of a republic and remove references to the British monarchy. The enduring effect of these provisions, however, has been to entrench the rights of the citizen as against the State and, as I indicated, the right of the people to charter its destiny.

In the European Union puzzlement is sometimes expressed about the reason Ireland holds referendums with relative frequency. With the forthcoming referendum on the Lisbon treaty, we will hear much more in this respect. However, the referendum on the treaty underscores the dynamic and democratic nature of Bunreacht na hÉireann.

A conference held in Trinity College last year to mark the 70th anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution demonstrated the influential nature of the Constitution, which affects many aspects of daily life, from religion to education and the criminal justice system. In future years, the Constitution will be pivotal in enabling Irish law and policy to accommodate difference in society and help realise human dignity.

It is a sign of the sophistication of the legal order that when the European Convention on Human Rights was embedded in our law through an Act of the Oireachtas in 2003 the change did not cause upheaval. Our judges and lawyers were already well versed in human rights principles. By contrast, the incorporation of the convention constituted a sea change in the United Kingdom.

Bunreacht na hÉireann has not only been an influential document in Ireland; its influence is much wider. Much of the Pakistan Constitution and some of the Indian Constitution were modelled on the Irish Constitution, which is also well known to the constitutional architects in South Africa. In recent years, it has been a much studied document in the newer eastern European democracies.

The stability and relative success of the Constitution is a testament to those who drafted and interpreted it. Its creator, Éamon de Valera, was lucky in terms of the quality of his civil servants and his judges and had the foresight to choose a talented drafting team led by the remarkable Mr. John Hearne, the then legal adviser at the Department of Foreign Affairs. As well as being a skilled draftsman, Hearne had an unrivalled knowledge of comparative constitutional law and international law. He and his drafting team transcended the limitations of their times and helped to infuse the document with balance and basic humanity.

Criticisms were made at the time that, in the area of personal rights, the new Constitution did not extend fundamentally the rights contained in the 1922 Constitution. Article 40 listed some new rights, however, and included an open-ended reference to the rights of mankind. This article, in the way it has been interpreted by judges, has probably proved to be the most radical part of the Constitution and the volume of constitutional litigation concerning it is a sign of its strength.

One area of the Constitution which has been neglected is Article 45 on the directive principles of social policy. These broad principles are intended for the guidance of the Legislature and are not enforceable in the courts. One can understand the reason there was a fear during the early years of the State about making social and economic rights fully enforceable. Nevertheless, the people believed sufficiently in these principles to make them part of the Constitution. Today, in a time of greater prosperity we would do well to remind ourselves of these principles. It surely must be correct, for example, that limitations be placed on the free market in the interest of the common good and that the State should protect the vulnerable.

As with the European Convention on Human Rights, the Constitution can co-exist very well with international instruments, including European instruments. This is a matter for the future, however. For now, it is important to recount Éamon de Valera's achievement in 1937. Apart from the current Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, he was the only other Taoiseach to win three general election victories in a row. His achievements in 1937 were to find a drafting team to transcend the limitations of their day and courageously hold a referendum on the Constitution. The end product was a living document which contributed much to the stability of the State.