ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Irishness of what has been recognised in Irish law as the 'Constitutional Family'. It explores an appreciation of how judicial interpretation of the various signs it contains has gender-coded and culturally encoded the role and rights of the constituent members of the Irish Family. The chapter explains the Bunreacht na hEireann which was written with Irish cultural traditions and customs in mind. It provides the Courts' interpretation about the various icons the text contains, examining in particular the meaning of the 'Constitutional Family', Marriage, and Woman-Mothers. The chapter focuses on the type of language the Courts have chosen to use to legitimise the signs and transmit their representation and implementation in social narratives. It illustrates the reframing of the signs in a more contemporary setting, following the lifting of the constitutional ban on divorce; and how of late the Courts have redefined the 'Constitutional Family' and its members in a non-Irish context.
