be removed from Acts of the Oireachtas. In May 1937 de Valera introduced the Executive Powers (Consequential Provisions) Act 1937 to do just that, as well as to validate the installation of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who had failed (or declined) to make the legally required declaration of office in front of the Governor-General, and to validate the appointment of a new Attorney-General, who under existing law could only be appointed by the Governor-General. Foreign affairs After the enactment of the Act, the King was no longer specifically mentioned in the Constitution. However, the amendment introduced a new provision that, without explicitly referring to the King, allowed the state to continue to use him as its representative in foreign affairs by passing a law allowing him to perform this function. A law for this purpose, the External Relations Act, was passed shortly after the amendment was enacted. Thus, after December 1936 treaties continued to be signed in the name of the King, and the King continued to accredit Irish ambassadors and high commissioners and to receive the Letters of Credence of foreign diplomats. The provision allowing the King to do this was inserted in Article 51 and read: The current Constitution of Ireland enacted in 1937, created the position of President of Ireland as head of state, but did not give the position any external functions. The External Relations Act thus created, for a number of years, a situation in which it was unclear whether the King remained the head of state for external purposes. This situation came to an end in 1949 when the Republic of Ireland Act came into force, removing the King's role in foreign affairs and making the President of Ireland head of state for all purposes. This new status was celebrated by President Seán T. O'Kelly paying the first ever state visit by an Irish president abroad. Expiry The Amendment became obsolete on the repeal of the 1922 Constitution on the adoption of the Constitution of Ireland in 1937, and was repealed as spent law by the Statute Law Revision Act 2016. See also History of the Republic of Ireland Head of state of Ireland (1936 to 1949) References External links Text of the Act from Irish Statute Book 1936 in Irish law Acts of the Oireachtas of the 1930s Abdication of Edward VIII Government in the Irish Free State Monarchy in