The absence of a homegrown honours system means that the only Irish people who get honours are international figures, writes Jim Duffy.
The Taoiseach's suggestion that Ireland should have an honours system re-opens a debate that has gone on since independence. Taoisigh such as Seán Lemass have in the past raised the issue but no system has ever been created, leaving Ireland one of only a handful of republics without a system for honouring its citizens.
When the Irish Free State left the United Kingdom in 1922 it rightly abandoned using British honours. But one honour caused a problem. For no one was quite sure to whom the Order of St Patrick, Ireland's order of chivalry and equivalent of England's Order of the Garter, belonged.
It had been created by a British monarch in their role as "king of Ireland" and awarded by United Kingdom monarchs during the union. So, now that Britain and Ireland had divorced, who had custody of the order?
WT Cosgrave's government chose to leave the order in limbo. The ownership question slightly worked itself out in Britain's Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act in April 1927, which changed the king from "king in Ireland" to "king of Ireland", the title the order had referred to.
Two months later with Cosgrave's approval, George V as Irish king appointed his heir apparent, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) as a member of the Order of St Patrick. In 1934 the Duke of Gloucester was appointed with de Valera's agreement, while on St Patrick's Day 1936 Edward VIII appointed his heir presumptive, the Duke of York (later George VI). With the abolition of the "king of Ireland" in the Republic of Ireland Act the order again went into limbo, especially when the last surviving appointee, the Duke of Gloucester, died in 1974. The order now consists of one member, the order's sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II.
The Order of St Patrick again became a public issue in the mid-1960s when then justice minister Brian Lenihan, at the request of taoiseach Seán Lemass, suggested relaunching the order as a distinctively Irish order under the president. But Lemass didn't take a decision and the Troubles in the North led the issue to be put on hold.
Two central myths surround the lack of an Irish honours system: firstly that the Constitution prohibits it, and secondly that republics don't have them. Neither is true. Article 40 prohibits the State from awarding "titles of nobility". That means peerages, not honours.
For while peerages (titles of nobility) may be types of honours, not all honours are peerages. The fact that there is a distinction between the two is shown in a subsequent clause in the Constitution: "no title of nobility or of honour may be accepted by any citizen except with the prior approval of the Government".
The wording, by the Constitution's author, John Hearne, was careful, on de Valera's instruction, to leave open the possibility of non-peerage honours.
In reality, most republics worldwide have honours. One of the oldest, the Congressional Medal of Honour, was created in the United States in 1776, so old indeed that it predates both the name "United States" and both US constitutions.
France's Legion of Honour was created in 1802, while Germany's current Order of Merit dates to 1951. Italy's Order of Merit also dates from 1951 and, unusually for a republic, contains a pre-nominal (title), with "Cavaliere" being the equivalent of a knighthood. Another Italian order, the Order of Merit in Work, predates the republic, dating back to the monarchy in 1901.
Kenya's Order of the Golden Heart in modern form dates from 1963. Russia launched its Order of St Andrew the First-Called in 1998. The US Presidential Medal of Freedom was launched by president Truman in 1945.
A possible way forward for this State is to reconstitute the Order of St Patrick as a joint British-Irish order, awarded jointly by the Irish president and British sovereign, perhaps to those whose actions help the cause of Anglo-Irish relations.
It could be linked to the east-west strand of relations, and be used to honour people such as Bill Clinton, George Mitchell, John Hume, Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and others who have done so much to bring about peace. Separate Irish honours could also be created, whether an Order of Merit or whatever, to operate alongside it.
It was understandable if in the 1920s Ireland wished to break from anything that seemed to symbolise British rule, and an honours system did carry much baggage.
Nearly a century later, with a changed atmosphere in Anglo-Irish relations, and with Ireland a member of an international community, almost all of whom have honours, the lack of an Irish honours system is increasingly hard to justify. It means that it falls to the French president, South African president, US Congress or most ironically of all the British queen, to honour successful Irish people, in the absence of homegrown honours.
The ultimate irony is that by not having a homegrown honours system, the only Irish people who get honours are international figures awarded for their international contributions.
On the other hand, ordinary people (community workers, charity fundraisers, individuals who have made extraordinary contributions) - ie the people who get the vast majority of honours in all systems - are left unrewarded.