In 1933 the Fianna Fáil party, led by Éamon de Valera, won the Irish general election, and began to put forward a series of reforms intended to more strongly assert Irish independence, including the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1935, which received the royal assent on 10 April 1935.
British nationality law continued to recognise citizens of Ireland/Éire as holding the status of British subjects until the British Nationality Act 1948 came into force on 1 January 1949.