Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending and for a most informative presentation. I tried knocking on the door of the expert advisory group as an independent but could not get in. As Mr. Falvey said, there is a significant element of creativity and imagination involved and I thought that I could have brought something to that but I was not in the right territory to be allowed onto the cross-party group.

In October, I chaired a session in Castlebar on Mayo's involvement in the civil war which I thought would be kind of dull and uninteresting. It was based on a book by Mr. Dominic Price entitled The Flame and The Candle,which is brilliant Even though I am from Mayo, I never knew we had such an involvement in the civil war in 1921. Professor Diarmaid Ferriter spoke at the session and hundreds of people turned up to a local event organised as part of the Wild Atlantic Words literary festival. When I say hundreds turned up, they came from everywhere to hear about their fathers and grandfathers who had fought in the war and who did or did not get the pension and so on. The local is the national. It is so important. The three-tiered approach described by Ms O'Grady is a very good way forward, particularly the use of the local. As we saw with The Gathering, the creativity and imagination of the local area, town or village is so important. I commend our witnesses on that element. Anybody can organise State commemorations and I agree that we might need to rethink some of those.

The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht must provide sufficient funding to allow the local to be as brilliant as it can be but €10,000 would not whitewash a wall. We cannot beg for funding from other Departments either. I often visit the Department, which is wonderful. I do not mean to undermine anybody but the Department must stand up for itself financially even if it is not considered as important as other Departments. In this instance, a generous budget must be provided if we want the local to do the national and bring in all of the different elements, including the turbulence that we are trying to platform but not in a turbulent way. We are trying to expose it in the best way possible.

Is money available for partnerships with entities other than local authorities? I am thinking here of the beleaguered RTÉ, the Abbey Theatre, orchestras, museums, libraries and so on. The witnesses said that they received 73 submissions, of which 20 were from local authorities. Were there submissions that the witnesses thought were brilliant and has money been set aside for those? They all come under some local authority - they are not sitting out in the sea - but is additional money available for them? The local is the way to go. The State commemorations will happen anyway and we could be a little bit more creative about those but the local is essential. I could not believe my eyes at that event in Castlebar. Hundreds of people attended and got something out of it. They spoke, answered questions and it was just like being back in time, listening to peoples' stories. It seemed like the whole of the county turned up to what was expected to be a small event. It could have been held in the 3Arena, such was the size of the audience. There are moments when the local becomes the national. The Department is doing a wonderful job but I hope there is enough money for the best local projects. I agree with Deputy Ó Cuív that €10,000 is not enough. What is that about? Why are we begging from other Departments? Of course they have to pay their way, but why are we begging?

In Dr. Manning's opinion, what stands out from the 1916 commemorations? Is there an event where we got it completely right? Is there one whose tentacles are still alive? I am not asking in the context of something that could be replicated but am just asking a general question about any event that worked both locally and nationally. If someone asked me about 1916, I would say that the Army played a magnificent part in both the small and great commemorations. If I was asked who I was most proud of, I would say the Army. I was impressed by the way our armed forces put order and smacht on everything. I invite Dr. Manning or any of the other witnesses to answer that question. Is there anything that stays with them, an event whose tentacles are still alive?