The Sovereignty Party takes its name from a simple conviction: all authority derives, under God, from the people of Ireland. Here is what that means to us — and why we see every member as a sovereign, independent individual whose rights come from God, not from the State.
Two related words, two different ideas. One names the holder of supreme authority; the other names the authority itself.
The person, body, or institution that holds supreme authority — the holder of ultimate, independent authority.
The condition or power of being sovereign — supreme, independent authority over a territory or polity.
A sovereign exercises sovereignty.
The same pair of ideas carries different weight depending on where authority is understood to sit.
Bunreacht na hÉireann opens in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority, and declares in Article 6 that all powers of government derive, under God, from the people. In Ireland, the people — not the government, and not the State — are the source of lawful authority.
In a democracy, the people are the sovereign, and popular sovereignty is the principle that ultimate authority rests with the people — not with those who administer public power on the people’s behalf.
In international law, sovereignty refers to a state’s full control over its own affairs without outside interference; the sovereign state is the entity that possesses this status.
The party’s position rests on the words of Bunreacht na hÉireann itself. The passages below are quotations from the Constitution; the emphasis and interpretation are our own.
PREAMBLE · BUNREACHT NA hÉIREANN
“In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred…”
The Constitution begins by acknowledging that all authority comes from God — not from the State, not from a government, and not from any administration of the day.
PREAMBLE
“We, the people of Éire, Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial…”
The people of Ireland adopted the Constitution in explicit acknowledgement of Jesus Christ. This is the foundation on which the party reads the entire document.
ARTICLE 6.1
“All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under God, from the people, whose right it is to designate the rulers of the State and, in final appeal, to decide all questions of national policy, according to the requirements of the common good.”
Every arm of the State holds its power on trust from the people — and under God. The people designate their rulers; the rulers do not command the people.
ARTICLE 40.1
“All citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law.”
The Constitution recognises the citizen first as a human person — a creature of God, not a subject of the State.
ARTICLE 40.3.1°
“The State guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen.”
The Constitution casts the State as the protector and defender of rights that come from God — a duty-holder, never the source.
≈ “the boss”
The actual holder of ultimate power.
≈ “being the boss”
The status and power of having that ultimate authority.
What this understanding of sovereignty means for how we treat every person who joins us.
The Sovereignty Party holds that every member is a sovereign, independent individual — a free person whose rights come from God, are recognised and protected under the Irish Constitution and the law, and are not a gift of the State to be given one day and taken back the next.
It is the party’s belief and interpretation that, as the preamble of the Irish Constitution proclaims, all authority derives from God — and that the people of Ireland, in adopting the Constitution, humbly acknowledged their obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ. We present this as our conviction — not as a statement of settled legal fact.
A State that removes God does not become neutral — it steps into the vacant place and becomes the measure of all things, claiming for itself the power to define what a right is, who holds it, and when it may be withdrawn. That is why the party holds that the State must remain under God and under the people: limited, controlled, and always accountable.
Please note: this page expresses The Sovereignty Party’s interpretation of sovereignty, the Irish Constitution, and the law. It is general information about our beliefs — it is not legal advice, and it should not be relied on as such.
What this understanding of sovereignty means at the ballot box — and why the party intends to field candidates who share it.
The Sovereignty Party intends to run candidates who believe in the principles of sovereignty set out on this page — in local and national government alike.
This gives voters the option of electing a like-minded representative who will be their voice in local and national government — speaking for the people they serve, not over them.
Such representatives will stand for what the party holds to be the God-given rights of every sovereign, independent citizen of Ireland — rights the Constitution recognises and the State exists to defend, not to grant.
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