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THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE EVENTS OF LATE 1948 AND EARLY 1949 WHICH LED TO IRELAND'S PRIME MINISTER JOHN COSTELLO'S MOVE TO REPEAL THE EXTERNAL RELATIONS ACT. IN REPEALING THE EXTERNAL RELATIONS ACT THE COSTELLO GOVERNMENT HAD TWO OBJECTIVES IN MIND: TO BREAK THE LAST CONNECTION WITH THE BRITISH CROWN AND TO CONFIRM IRELAND'S DEPARTURE FROM THE COMMONWEALTH. THE AUTHOR ASSERTS THAT THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT DID NOT ANTICIPATE BRITAIN'S RESPONSE TO THE REPEAL, AND WITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF H.V. EVATT AUSTRALIAN MINISTER FOR EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, THE TRIAL WOULD SURELY HAVE SUFFERED IRREPARABLE DAMAGE TO ITS TRADE AND RESTRICTIONS ON THE MOVEMENTS OF ITS CITIZENS.

In the United Kingdom, teachers' professional associations and labor organizations, notably in the form of trade unions have historically been involved in education and training in the workplace. Recently, in the United Kingdom this activity has gained greater credence and importance due to the emergence of trade union learning representatives who are a new category of unpaid lay representation with statutory rights who operate within the workplace. They are part of the present UK government's drive to expand and improve lifelong learning and continuing professional development (CPD) in order to create the new learning society within the UK. In Scotland, a constituent part of the UK with its own distinctive education system, the McCrone Report (2000), particularly its CPD recommendations and the subsequent 21st Century Agreement (Scottish Executive Education Department [SEED], 2001) has added impetus to the role of these learning representatives within the Scottish teaching profession. This article examines how the Educational Institute of Scotland, a professional trade union, which represents the overwhelming majority of teachers in Scotland, has launched a learning representatives initiative with the aim that the representatives work to advise, broker, and facilitate improved CPD opportunities for their colleagues, particularly in relation to Chartered Teacher status (O'Brien and Hunt, 2005).