Saor Éire

Óglaigh na hÉireann

Draft Constitution and Rules

1. The Army shall be known as the Irish Republican Army,

2. It shall be on a purely Volunteer Army basis.

3. Its objects shall be :—

(a) To guard the honour and maintain the independence of the Irish Republic.
(b) To protect the rights and liberties common to the people of Ireland.
(c) To place its services at the disposal of an established Republican Government which faithfully upholds the above objects.

CONTROL OF THE ARMY

4. The Army shall be controlled by an executive of sixteen, which shall be appointed by a committee of twenty-five, selected as follows :—

Each province elects five delegates.
Each province nominates five further delegates from whom the whole convention will elect the remaining five. Any serving Volunteer to be eligible to act on the executive. This executive shall have supreme control of the Army, and the executive shall not itself, directly or indirectly, be subordinate to, or be controlled by any other body : Subject to any alterations necessary to put into operation section 3 (Sub-section c) above. Such proposed alterations to be sanctioned by a general convention

DUTIES AND POWERS OF EXECUTIVE

5. The duties of the executive shall be to define policy for the Army. It shall have supreme control over the Army Council and General Headquarters Staff. It shall not, however, have power to interfere with General Headquarters Staff in respect of purely Army matters, such as organisation, training, method of conducting operations, etc. Ten shall form a quorum at meetings of the executive.

FINANCIAL POWERS

6 The executive shall be responsible for and safeguarding of Funds for Army purposes.

EXECUTIVE MEETINGS

7. The executive shall meet at least every two months. In the event of a vacancy occurring on the executive it shall be filled by co-option.

ARMY COUNCIL

8. The executive shall appoint an Army Council of seven, of which, four shall be chosen from the members of the executive, and the remaining three may be appointed from outside the executive. Four shall form a quorum at meetings of the Army Council. In the event of a vacancy occurring on the council, it shall be filled by co-option to be approved by the executive.

GENERAL HEADQUARTERS STAFF

9. The executive shall appoint a Chief of Staff, who will appoint his staff.

GENERAL CONVENTION

10. A general convention representative of the whole Army shall meet at least once in each twelve months, and shall elect a committee to appoint an executive as in Section 4, who shall hold office until the next general convention. It shall also receive a report from the Chief of Staff, and a financial statement from the executive.

SYSTEM OF REPRESENTATION

11. The system of representation shall be as follows :—

At a company parade called for the purpose, one delegate shall be elected to attend a brigade convention where the number of men on parade does not exceed thirty men ; two delegates where the number on parade is over thirty and under seventy-one; three delegates where the number on parade exceeds seventy men ; and an additional delegate for every thirty men over one hundred.
The election shall be by ballot.

BRIGADE CONVENTION

12. The constitution of the brigade convention shall be as
follows:—

(a) The brigade commandant and two members of his staff as elected by the staff.
(b) Each battalion commandant and one member of his staff elected by the staff.
(c) The company delegates as elected in accordance with the instructions detailed above.

The staff in this connection shall be taken as including the officers commanding special services.

13. The brigade convention shall elect delegates to represent the brigade at the general convention. The number of delegates to be so elected shall be 5 per cent. of the total number of delegates present at the brigade convention. In the event of such percentage resulting in a whole number and a fraction, the nearest whole number will be the number of delegates. The individual delegates so chosen need not necessarily be selected from those present at the convention, but must be active members of the brigade or of the staff of the division to which the brigade is attached.

GENERAL CONVENTION

14. The constitution of the general convention shall be as follows:—

(a) All members of the executive.
(b) All members of the Army Council.
(c) All members of the General Headquarters Staff.
(d) All divisional commandants, and two other members of the divisional staff as elected by that staff.
(e) The delegates selected at the brigade convention.

VOTING AT CONVENTION

15. Voting on motions shall be carried out as decided by the chairman of the convention.

16. The chairman of the general convention shall be chosen by the convention.

QUOROUM

17. The number to form a quorum at a general convention shall be two-thirds of the total number of delegates entitled to attend.

EXTRAORDINARY CONVENTION

18. An extraordinary convention shall be called if required.

(a) By a two-thirds majority of the executive.
(b) By a two-thirds majority of G.H.Q.
(c) By a two-thirds majority of the divisional commandants,
provided they represent two-thirds of the total strength of the whole Army.

MEMBERSHIP OF ARMY

19. Only such persons shall be allowed to remain in, or shall be admitted to the Army who take the oath of allegiance to the Irish Republic. No person holding any rank in any other Army shall be enrolled in the Irish Republican Army.

20. The oath of allegiance to be taken by every member of the Army shall be as follows :—

I, ............................... do solemnly swear that to the best of my knowledge and ability I will support and defend the Irish Republic against all enemies foreign and domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. I do further swear that I do not, and shall not, yield a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, or power within Ireland hostile or inimical to that Republic. I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion so help me God.

AMENDING OF CONSTITUTION

21. It shall require a majority of two-thirds of the general convention to amend any article of the constitution.

(This is the constitution adopted by the Republican side during the civil war of 1922-1923)