In 1937, Catholic Southern Ireland unilaterally declared its independence from the United Kingdom and officially adopted the name of the Republic of Ireland; the country's two official languages were Irish and English. The Republic of Ireland Act of 1948 severed all ties with the United Kingdom.
At the time of independence, only 2% of the Irish still spoke Irish (and were bilingual), while 98% spoke English only. Accordingly, the Irish government instituted a series of measures to promote the Irish language, particularly within the 1948 Constitution.