Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of national importance: the forthcoming Independence sale of over 400 lots of historic artefacts and documents associated with the 1916 Easter Rising scheduled to coincide with the 90th anniversary commemoration of the Rising; the possibility that such unique, irreplaceable and priceless historical treasures such as the original words of Amhrán na bhFiann, the 1916 Proclamation, the original Tricolour that flew over the GPO during the Rising, letters and poetry from Patrick Pearse, the typewriter that was used by Michael Collins and final letters from the executed leaders to their loved ones — all part of our national heritage — could be lost to the nation; and calls on the Government in adherence to the memory and ideals of the men and women of 1916 to take whatever initiative is necessary to rescue a significant part of Ireland's documentary heritage from private hands.

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