Both judges also noted that the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 did not change the name of the state as prescribed in the Constitution. The following is an extract from Walsh's judgement:  The dispute between the UK and Irish governments over the names of their respective states now appears to have been resolved. The Ireland Act 1949 has not been formally repealed by the UK but has been in effect overridden. This resolution took place when the Good Friday Agreement (or Belfast Agreement) was concluded in 1998. That Agreement concerned a wide range of constitutional and other matters regarding Northern Ireland. Notably, as part of it, the Irish state dropped its legal claim to the territory of Northern Ireland. In the title of the Agreement, the two governments used their respective domestic law names, the "Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" and the "Government of Ireland". Some Unionist members of the British parliament objected strenuously to the use of the term the "Government of Ireland". They proposed that the practice of referring to the Irish government as the "Government of the Republic of Ireland" should be continued. Their objections were not accepted. Responding for the British government in the House of Lords, Lord Dubs explained that the new practice of referring to the Irish state by the name "Ireland":  This policy has been respected by both governments since the Belfast Agreement. A House of Lords debate, ten years later in May 2008, on Regulations governing political donations by Irish citizens and bodies to political parties in Northern Ireland, is a good example of this. During the debate Lord Rooker, a Government minister, said that the Regulations would: "acknowledge the special place that the island of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland occupy in the political life of Northern Ireland". Responding, Lord Glentoran suggested that Lord Rooker in fact "meant to say that [the draft Regulations recognise] the special place that Ireland occupies in the political life of Northern Ireland." Agreeing with Lord Glentoran's observation, Lord Rooker responded: So far there has been no domestic British legislation explicitly providing that "Ireland" may be used as a name for the Irish state for the purposes of domestic British law. While the UK's Ireland Act provides for use of the name "Republic of Ireland" in domestic British law, that legislation is permissive rather than mandatory so it does not mean "Ireland" cannot be used instead. However, some legal commentators have speculated that it may be necessary for the British government to introduce legislation to also explicitly provide for use of the name "Ireland" for the Irish state because under domestic British law the name "Ireland" might be interpreted as referring to the whole island of Ireland.