Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for organising these expressions. It is a privilege and an honour to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela. We do so as public representatives on behalf of the thousands of Irish people who will be mourning his loss and celebrating the contribution he made to all of our lives and the world.

It is difficult to know where to start in talking about a man like Nelson Mandela, a giant of his time, a man of peace and justice, a man who gave his whole life to his country, for which he would have given his life. Hardly anyone alive in the world could have failed to have known him or recognised his warm smile, his name or known what he stood for. It seems difficult to believe he is officially part of history, that his long walk to freedom is over, that his story in some way has ended.

What a story. A man who made an impact with his words long before social media and the Internet, whose words and deeds made worldwide impact because of their simplicity and truth. Nelson Mandela stood for equality – such a fundamental human right that the world stood with him until his own South African Government caved under the pressure.

It seems difficult to understand in a modern Ireland, in a modern world, that a whole country ran its system deliberately to exclude one group with a particular skin colour, to patronise, bully, destroy, ignore, neglect – and kill if necessary – those who were black or coloured and to allow white people to have the best of everything. South Africa ran its apartheid system in a very public way. There was nothing covert about the signs on buses, in shops and on streets or about the politics, the housing system, the appointments system or the beatings. This racism was sewn into the fabric of South Africa by its own rulers.

Mandela was sentenced to a lifetime in prison for trying to stand up to such a regime. The world held its breath when he walked out of jail in 1990 – 27 years after he had been sent there for political offences, including sabotage. The world held its breath because no one knew what his release might bring. Would it mean the start of the healing process? Would it plunge South Africa backwards? Would Mr. F. W. de Klerk’s decision to release him be well received or lead to civil war? The ANC appointed Mandela as its president and he called on the world to keep up the pressure on the South African Government until equality was achieved, until black and coloured people were free to vote and to live together. Sense prevailed but it took time. The greatest gift of all was Mandela’s own capacity to forgive, reconcile, hold out a hand and show that peace and understanding comes when people hold hands, not when they fight.

Mandela spoke in the Dáil, as Senator Barrett has reminded us, and I quote:

The outstanding Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, has written that "Too long a sacrifice/Can make a stone of the heart." He spoke thus because he could feel within himself the pain of the suffering that Irish men and women of conscience had had to endure in centuries of struggle against an unrelenting tyranny. But then he also spoke of love, of the love of those whose warm hearts the oppressors sought to turn to stone, the love of their country and people, and, in the end the love of humanity itself.

Of course that is what Nelson Mandela will be most remembered for. Also, the first democratic elections with universal suffrage held in 1994 and when he became the first black elected president of South Africa, with a new colourful flag and importantly with Mr. F. W. de Klerk as vice-president, who apologised for the part he played in the apartheid regime by saying:

I apologise ... to the millions of South Africans who suffered the wrenching disruption of forced removals ... suffered the shame of being arrested for pass law offences ... who over the decades and indeed centuries suffered the indignities and humiliation of racial discrimination.

Of course Mandela kept working after the election, and as others have mentioned, he used sport and music to reconcile people by wearing the South African rugby jersey and congratulated those involved on their efforts to bring people together. He never forgot that sport and music were ways to communicate and enjoy life but above all to empower his young nation as it made its way as a black majority rule country and tried to get on with its white citizens who had ruled for so long.

After Mandela retired as President, he convened a group of world leaders, including Mrs. Mary Robinson, Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu and others. He named the group "The Elders," and its aim was to find solutions around the globe. He never forgot that he still had something to contribute after all of the years and he had, by then, reached quite an age. He still wanted to make a contribution and showed great selflessness.

I do not forget that Nelson Mandela saw that the apartheid regime existed in a more fundamental way when he spoke about the rights and role of women in a modern democracy. As Senator van Turnhout has said, at the opening of the first parliament in 1994, President Mandela declared:

Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression. Our endeavours must be about the liberation of the woman, the emancipation of the man and the liberty of the child.

In that election the number of women increased from 2.7% to 27% and in the last election 44% of the South African politicians are women. The aim was to achieve 50:50 parity by 2015 so the country has done well.

In 1994, Mandela honoured the 20,000 black women who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956 to protest at having to carry passes in urban areas. When Mandela became President he named 9 August Women’s Day and a national holiday. He said: "The women were courageous, persistent, enthusiastic, indefatigable and their protest against passes set a standard for anti-government protest that was never equalled." That is an incredibly generous comment to make because that is what we might say about him.

Finally, we have much to be grateful for. We are grateful for Nelson Mandela's generosity, perseverance, understanding, good humour and absolute belief in the idea of equality for all. As he said at the end of his speech in Dáil Éireann "Together we will win." Le chéile, indeed.