44 / 196
allow for the expression of the widest variety of view-
points and should confirm the intention of retaining
Stormont as a legislative forum. Sufficient guarantee
could be given of the maintenance of the link with
Westminster by the continued presence there of twelve
Northern M.P.s
The Executive
The Government of Northern Ireland — within its
limited powers — is also based on the Cabinet
system, and the Ministers are members of the
Northern Ireland Parliament. The Queen's repre-
sentative is the Governor of Northern Ireland, whose
position is regulated by Section 37 of the 1920 Act and
the First Schedule of the Irish Free State (Consequential
Provisions) Act, 1922, which also provides for a Privy
Council and a Great Seal of Northern Ireland. Section
8 of the 1920 Act provides for the establishmet of
Government Departments, and these are further regu-
lated by the Ministries of Northern Ireland Acts (N.I.)
1921, 1944 and 1946. There appears to be no Consti-
tutional bar to extending the size of this Government to
include a member of the delegation from the South
sitting in the Stormont Parliament.
The Judiciary
Section 6 of the 1920 Act enacts that, except where
otherwise provided, the Parliament of Northern Ireland
shall not have power to repeal or alter any provision of
the Government of Ireland Act or of any Act of the
Parliament or delegated legislation of the United King-
A reform of the Adoption Act whereby a mother
should sign a provisional consent on the surrender of
the baby, which would become automatic in three
months, was proposed by the Rev. James Good, the
educationalist, who was speaking in Limerick last night.
Fr. Good, who had been given the responsibility for
the formation of the Cork Adoption Society, said that
this would end the "dog-in-the-manger" attitude of
some mothers.
He was addressing the members of the Limerick
branch of Tuairim, in the Savoy Rooms, and said :
"Adoption is not for getting children for childless
marriages, nor for relieving unmarried mothers of their
responsibility, nor indeed for saving the State the cost
of keeping children in orphanages. Adoption is prim-
arily and above all else a process for finding a home
and a family for a homeless child."
"When we look at our Adoption Acts we find that
they are not child-centred but mother-centred. Right
through the adoption law of this country, the dominant
idea is that the child is the property of the mother, and
that short of killing him or physically maltreating him,
she can do just what she likes with him. She can give
him for adoption and reclaim him at will, and having
reclaimed her baby, she can go through the same process
again if she wishes and break up a second or third
family by her indecision.
"I suggest therefore that the mother should sign a
provisional consent on the surrender of the baby and
that this should become automatic three months later
without further recourse to the mother, unless she has
dom passed after 3rd May 1921. If a statute is so
passed, it is
ultra vires
and may be held void by any
Court in Northern Ireland. By Section 50 of the 1920
Act, there is always an appeal to the Court of Appeal
in cases involving the validity of a statute where there
would not otherwise be any such appeal. Consequently,
the Courts of Northern Ireland are accustomed to
reviewing the Constitutionality of legislation—a role
never demanded of English Courts since the Parliament
of Westminster is supreme.
If a Bill of Rights were adopted and given the same
status as the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, this role
of the Northern Courts could extend to the protection
of individual' rights of the citizen. This subject matter
is clearly within the jurisdiction of the Sotrmont Parlia-
ment as pertaining to the maintenance of peace and
preservation of order in the province.
CONCLUSION
What has been set out is the mere framework of a
possible Constitutional solution of the "Irish Question".
An attempt has been made to adopt a functional and
realistic approach, retaining the existing institutions in
Dublin and Belfast, with the link between the Northern
Parliament and Westminster. Conceptual phrases such
as "sovereignty" and "recognition" have been avoided
deliberatelyi n an attempt to cut through such artificial
barriers to co-operation and interdependence. We want
to join Europe and participate in the E.E.C.; can we
not join the North and participate with each other?
The Irish Times
(8th July 1970)
for
withdrawn consent in the meantime. If she withdraws
consent, I would ask for some procedure whereby she
should prove that she has a home for the child before
he is returned to her care."
Fr. Good called as well for changes in the adminis-
tration of the law. "As is well known, half of the
Adoption Board resigned some months ago in protest
against the way the board was administering its affairs.
This resignation made public what many have believed
over the years, namely that its constitution leaves the
board open to manipulation by a small number of civil
servants who are not members of it."
Fr. Good made a plea for the Hierarchy to take
another look at baptismal certificates for adopted chil-
dren. He said that there were now over 15,000 legally
adopted people in this country, and the baptismal certi-
ficate made available to them by the National Synod of
Mayhooth in 1956 was a very miserable document. "An
American Catholic memorandum to which I have had
access makes the point that 'baptismal records should
never become the occasion of loss of reputation to any-
one', and the American hierarchy have made available
a perfectly adequate baptismal certificate for adopted
children which is in effect identical with that made
available to other children. To me it is a simple case of
copying the American procedure; there is no difficulty
—theological, juridical or social—against it."
Fr. Good said that the provision whereby mixed
marriages are prohibited from legally adopting a child
is unconstitutional and he hoped it would go over-
board in the very near future.
The Irish Times
Reformed Adoption Act called
44