THE NEW YORK TIMES, April 18, 1949

• Republic of Ireland is born
• Leaves the British Commonwealth
• "First Freedom Day"

The top of the front page has a two column heading: "Irish Hail Birth of Republic With Fanfare and Jubilation" with subhead. (see images) 
Complete with 38 pages, light toning at the margins, nice condition.

Background: The birth of the Republic of Ireland on April 18, 1949, was a watershed moment that marked the final, formal severing of Ireland’s constitutional ties to the British Crown and its departure from the Commonwealth, concluding a centuries-long struggle for self-determination. By officially declaring itself a republic 33 years to the day after the 1916 Easter Rising, the nation transitioned from a self-governing British dominion to a fully independent sovereign state, gaining complete control over its foreign policy and international identity. However, this triumph was deeply bittersweet; the political finality of the declaration entrenched the partition of the island, cementing the border with Northern Ireland—which remained part of the United Kingdom—and leaving the nationalist dream of a thirty-two-county unified republic painfully incomplete.