Irish Republic

:This article is about the historical Irish Republic. For the modern Irish state, see: Republic of Ireland1. The terms are not synonomous.

Name

In English, the revolutionary state was known as the 'Irish Republic' or, occasionally, the 'Republic of Ireland'. Two different Irish language titles were used: Poblacht na hÉireann and Saorstát Éireann, based on two competing Irish translations of the word republic: Poblacht and Saorstát. Poblacht was a foreign loan word, a simple Gaelicisation of its English equivalent. Saorstát, on the other hand, was a compound word based on two already existing Irish words: saor (meaning "free") and stát ("state"). Its direct, literal translation was "free state". A slight variant of the title, Saorstát na hÉireann, was also sometimes used in later days as was the Latin Respublica Hibernica.

Related Topics:
English - Irish language - Republic - Free state - Latin

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The term Poblacht na hÉireann is the one used in the Easter Proclamation of 1916. However the Declaration of Independence and other documents adopted in 1919 eschew this title in favour of Saorstát Éireann.

Related Topics:
Easter Proclamation - 1916 - Declaration of Independence

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When the Irish Free State was established at the end of the Anglo-Irish War, Saorstát Éireann was adopted as its official Irish title. However this Free State was not a republic but a form of constitutional monarchy within the British Empire. For this reason, since that time, the word saorstát has fallen out of use as a translation of republic. When the Irish state became The Republic of Ireland in 1949, for example, its official Irish description became Poblacht na hÉireann.

Related Topics:
Irish Free State - Anglo-Irish War - Constitutional monarchy - British Empire - The Republic of Ireland - 1949

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