equal rights
as citizens." And Article 4 provides that the official language of that
citizenship shall be the Irish language.

From these original citizens, and from whomever shall be admitted to
citizenship in the future, all the authority of the State derives under
the Constitution. They are the base of the pyramid, and it is they who in
the Constitution (according to the plan on which it is framed) confer on
certain persons and organisations definite powers of Government in
Ireland. But the authority which can confer, can also withhold; and from
the powers which they grant, certain matters are withheld. For there are
matters which comprise the fundamental rights of their sovereignty, with
which no Government created by them can interfere. If the Government had
existed, or had claimed to have existed, of its own original right, it
could, being itself sovereign, have acted as it pleased; and in past times
it did so. But since Government under the Constitution exists only by
reason of an authority conferred by a sovereign people, these Fundamental
Rights of their sovereignty are kept apart; and no authority--legislative,
executive or judicial--and no power of Government is conceded the right to
touch them.

Therefore in the first section of the Constitution, where the original
authority of the people is stated, certain matters are withheld. They are
described as _Fundamental Rights_. The liberty of the Person, the
Inviolability of the Dwelling, Freedom of Conscience and the Free Practice
and Profession of Religion, the Free Expression of Opinion, Free
Assembly, Free Association, Free Elementary Education, and the
Inalienability of Natural Resources, are each dealt with in successive
articles as forming the essentials of these rights. Before any powers are
conferred, before any organisations or institutions of Government are
created, these matters are put to one side and reserved. They belong to
the people. None shall interfere with them. The people are sovereign, and
they so decide.

Such is the plan, for such is the philosophy. The first section of the
Constitution, therefore, includes what may be described as the base of the
pyramid, resting on the soil of Ireland and established in the right of
the People of Ireland. From that base the pyramid is built up toward the
Executive Authority, in section by section, giving the logical order in
which power is derived. Each section is based on that which precedes it;
for