Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland

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Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution

22 May 1998 (1998-05-22)
To permit the state to be bound by the British–Irish Agreement
Results
Choice Votes % Yes 1,442,583 94.39% No 85,748 5.61% Valid votes 1,528,331 98.90% Invalid or blank votes 17,064 1.10% Total votes 1,545,395 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 2,747,088 56.26%

The Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution is an amendment of the Constitution of Ireland which permitted the state to be bound by the British–Irish Agreement (the bilateral portion of the Good Friday Agreement) and enabled the establishment of shared political institutions between Ireland and Northern Ireland. It also provided a mechanism for a further amendment to the Constitution upon a declaration by the government on the implementation of the Agreement, most notably by changing Articles 2 and 3 from the previous claim over the whole island of Ireland to an aspiration towards creating a united Ireland by peaceful means, "with the consent of a majority of the people, democratically expressed, in both jurisdictions in the island".

The amendment was effected by the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution Act 1998 (previously bill no. 24 of 1998) which was approved by referendum on 22 May 1998 and signed into law on 3 June of the same year. The referendum was held on the same day as a Northern Ireland referendum on the Good Friday Agreement and a second referendum in the Republic of Ireland to ratify of the Amsterdam Treaty. The Government declaration envisaged by the Nineteenth Amendment was made on 2 December 1999, bringing the changes to Articles 2 and 3 and certain other parts of the constitution into effect.^[1]