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Aspirations Unfulfilled: The Equality Right in Irish Law

Equality is a concept that is subject to multiple interpretations. It generates disputes as to its meaning and the weight it should be given in legal and political debates. This paper aims to explore some of the contested versions of how the equality principle should be understood and applied, and how the equality principle is manifested in Irish law. Particular emphasis is placed upon the place of equality in the Irish constitutional order, given the symbolic and practical importance of constitutional values in shaping how the rest of the legal system functions. The impact of international human rights norms, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights, is also examined, along with the potential implications of the requirement in the Belfast Agreement that Ireland provide an "equivalence" of rights protection as that applying in Northern Ireland. The conclusion is reached that a gap may exist between the place of equality as a fundamental value in the Irish Constitution and in international human rights law, and how it is actually applied in the Irish legal system. This may require a re-assessment of what it means to 'cherish all of the children of the nation equally', in the words of the 1916 Proclamation establishing the Irish Republic.