John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Ceann Comhairle)

A dhaoine oirirce, 90 bliain ó shin nuair a tháinig an Chéad Dháil le chéile, bhí 34 duine as 105 de na comhaltaí tofa i bpríosún. Bhraith roinnt mhaith de na comhaltaí a tháinig go dtí an fhoirgnimh seo go rabhadar i mbaol. Sheasadar i dtoghchán agus thángadar anseo ar chúis amháin: chreideadar sa neamhspleáchas agus chreideadar sa daonlathas.

Nócha bliain ina dhiaidh sin, is minic a bhraithimid easpa spéise a bheith ag daoine sa pholaitíocht nó go bhfuiltear ag déanamh talamh slán dár bhain na daoine cróga sin amach 90 bliain ó shin. Ach, ar shlí, is comhartha ratha é sin ó thaobh na ndaoine misniúla a tháinig go dtí an seomra seo 90 bliain ó shin, agus óna dtaobh siúd a thóg ár náisiún agus ár gcóras polaitíochta ó shin. B'fhéidir go ndéanann daoine talamh slán dár ndaonlathas agus dár neamhspleáchas, ach is amhlaidh atá toisc go bhfuil siad muiníneach nach mbainfear díobh iad. Is comhartha é sin gur éirigh leis na daoine cróga a chruinnigh anseo 90 bliain ó shin, ach ní mór dúinn a thuiscint i gcónaí nach dtarlaíonn córas polaitíochta agus sochaí fholláin shibhialta astu féin — ní foláir iad a chruthú agus iad a chothabháil.

Ninety years ago when the First Dáil met, 34 of the 105 elected Members were in jail. Many of those who did come here to this building felt they were in danger. They ran for election and they came here for one reason: they believed in independence and they believed in democracy.

Ninety years on, we often note a public disinterest in politics, or a sense that people take the achievements of those brave people 90 years ago for granted. In a way, that is a tribute to them and to those who built our nation and political system since then. Perhaps people do sometimes take our democracy and independence for granted, but that is because they are confident that nobody will take either away from them. In a way, that is a mark of success, but we must always remind ourselves that a healthy political system and a healthy civil society do not just happen; they must be created and maintained.

Throughout our somewhat tragic and troubled history, the Irish people have always made known their desire for national self-determination. That desire to have our own Parliament was best enshrined in Charles Stewart Parnell's rallying speech in Cork on 21 January 1885:

But no man has the right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation. No man has a right to say to his country 'Thus far shalt thou go and no farther' and we have never attempted to fix the ne plus ultra to the progress of Ireland's nationhood, and we never shall.

Exactly 34 years after delivering this speech at Cork, a group of very brave people assembled in this building to give life to that aspiration for nationhood. It is an honour and a privilege to be here as Ceann Comhairle to mark the 90th anniversary of the sitting of the First Dáil Éireann.

Today, we salute the patriotism and courage of those elected representatives who, through their meeting here in the Mansion House in January 1919, assumed the right to establish a Parliament and run the affairs of this country. They put in place an administration and a parliamentary structure which effectively marked the foundation of the State. They gave new life to the stated wish of the Irish people for national self-determination which was expressed overwhelmingly in the 1918 general election.

On that historic day they ignored the might of the British Empire and established the First Dáil. In doing so they made a clear statement to the world about Ireland's right to independence and they also signalled a commitment to parliamentary democracy. In the words of Brian Farrell they established "the authentic credentials of modern Irish democracy". Risking their liberty and even their lives, they demonstrated extraordinary courage and determination to ratify the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic and followed that with the passing of what is now regarded as one of the most historic documents in Irish history — the Declaration of Independence.

Once the declaration was made, my predecessor and very first Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann, Cathal Brugha, said:

A Theachtaí na Dála, tuigfidh sibh óna bhfuil dearbhaithe anso go bhfuilimid scartha anois le Sasana. Bíodh a fhios san ag an saol, agus ag daoine a mbaineann an scéal leo. Pé ní a thiocfaidh as a bhfuil ráite anso — imirt anama nó bás — tá deireadh le ré na cainte in Éirinn, agus más maith é is mithid é — tá deireadh le ráiméis.

Tá teachtairí ó fhormhór a bhfuil de náisiúin sa domhan ag Versailles mar seo, agus is é rud a thug ann iad, ar a n-admháil féin, ná chun síocháin a dhéanamh do chiní an domhain ionas nach mbeadh a thuilleadh gá le cogadh choíche arís. Deirimidne leo anois, agus san go dána, má táid dáiríre, go gcaithfear briseadh a dhéanamh ar an gceangal so idir an dúthaigh seo is Sasana. Muna ndéantar san, ní bheidh aon síocháin ann.

Achainím oraibh iontaoibh a bheith agaibh as a chéile. Tá lámh Dé inár n-obair: is léir san as ar tharla le dhá bhliain anuas. Dhá bhliain is an Cháisc seo a d'imigh tharainn, bunaíodh Saorstát Éireann. Ní gá dúinn anois ach seasamh le chéile, moladh is buíochas le Dia. Cuirimis le chéile agus ná deineadh éinne sinn a dheighilt, agus ní baol dúinn.

Cathal Brugha believed that independence and peace were inextricably linked and that if they remained united, they would succeed. And succeed they did, but let us remember that in the dark years that followed, many people paid the ultimate sacrifice to pave the way for the freedom to elect our own Parliament, that privilege we enjoy today.

Our Parliament survived those dark times and since then it has not only survived but thrived. When other nations and parliaments, born from the breaking of empires at the end of the carnage of the First World War, had succumbed to dictatorship and totalitarianism, the Irish Parliament remained independent, free and democratic, no mean feat in a world wracked by war and strife. It continued to do so, surviving through the economic war and depression of the 1930s, the Second World War, and indeed the years following that when alien ideologies again threatened to overtake democracy. It endured the stagnation and emigration of the 1950s, was instrumental in the industrialisation of Ireland in the 1960s and led Ireland into Europe in the 1970s. It survived the downturn and recessions of the 1980s and played a vital role in the turnaround of the State's fortunes in the 1990s.

Today, it is very easy for elected representatives and parliamentarians to take for granted our ability to put our names forward for election, to canvass freely the electorate, to put forward our ideas without censorship. Maybe as a people, we can sometimes forget that some gave all so that we can cast our vote in our own country for our government of choice. We owe a lot to those pioneers who took the first steps on that road.

If they could see us today, I feel they would be proud of what they achieved. The challenge for us as parliamentarians is to build on the achievements of those fearless individuals who collectively gave us our national Parliament.

However, as a Parliament and as individual politicians, we know that our parliamentary democracy is not without its flaws and that some citizens query the relevance of Dáil Éireann in today's globalised society. If citizens are apathetic about our parliamentary democracy today, we politicians must look at ourselves and our parliamentary procedures. Too often in the past, politics, Government and the Oireachtas may have been seen as somewhat remote from society, remote from the ordinary man and woman in the street, while the adversarial and confrontational style of debate can be a turn-off for some people.

In today's fast moving world, parliamentary politics can seem slow, unwieldy and bureaucratic. Parliamentary politics, by its nature, is a long process. Legislation is changed slowly and through complex parliamentary procedures that do not easily provide the stories required by daily journalists and for a news hungry readership and listenership looking for hourly news reports. The reality of legislation and political progress is that one can rarely say "something changed yesterday" — the parliamentary process does not often fit the daily news cycle.

Nevertheless, that does not mean we cannot improve. Our parliamentary system must change and is changing and is making politics and Parliament more relevant, more open and more transparent. This is why I, as Ceann Comhairle, strongly support the efforts of our parliamentarians to reform procedures, to make our Parliament more accessible to civil society. I think the direction in which we are heading is the direction the members of the first ever Dáil Éireann would have both envisaged and approved of.

Our meeting here today is a celebration of their courage and foresight and their ratification of the declaration of our independence. It is also an acknowledgement of how far we have come over the past 90 years. I started with Charles Stewart Parnell and I will end with him. "Why should Ireland be treated as a geographical fragment of England?", he asked in April 1875. "Ireland is not a geographical fragment, but a nation." It took a brave stand by the members of the First Dáil Éireann to make that a reality.

Beidh an comhshuí inniu de Dháil Éireann agus de Sheanad Éireann chun an dáta tábhachtach seo i stair na hÉireann a chomóradh ina bheart ómóis do na Parlaimintigh sin a ghlac na chéad chéimeanna chun ár gcóras daonlathach nua-aimseartha a bhunú, agus beidh sé ina bheart inspioráide do pholaiteoirí an lae inniu agus na blianta atá le teacht agus do mhuintir na hÉireann.

See this speech in context