Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have listened to Deputy McNamara and his party’s deputy leader criticising people for castigating others and never seeing the good in anything. I remind him to look at the records of the previous Dáil.

I commend Deputy Higgins on introducing a motion that allows us to discuss 1913 because despite Deputy McNamara’s barbs, without him this Dáil would not have had the opportunity to discuss the centenary of 1913. It is the second part in a number of celebrations and commemorations we will undertake over the next decade after last year’s Ulster Covenant. It was forgotten about and would not have featured in discussions in Dáil Éireann were it not for the motion this evening.

While I disagree with much of the motion, at least Deputy Higgins has given us the chance to reflect on the centenary in the Oireachtas and its impact not just on the industrial relations tradition and history of this country but on independence generally for the country. It was the spark that ignited a flame in 1913 that showed people they could stand up and collectively organise not alone for workers’ rights but for the rights of our nation. It was unfortunate and ironic that even with the Labour Party in government – Deputy McNamara might take the opportunity to raise the matter with the Whips to give us the chance to reflect on the centenary at some stage during the year – nothing was formally tabled in the House. At least Deputy Higgins deserves the credit for doing that.

If anybody is serious about looking at that period of Irish history at the weekend we had the honour of the Taoiseach being in my home town opening the Jackie Clarke Library, which is the most extensive repository of all things to do with Irish history over the past 200 years, even more so than any of the museums in Dublin. There are elements of the library that relate to 1913 but more material on the struggle that followed. I commend anyone to visit the library and if people have material to add to it then I am sure Sinead McCoole, the curator, would be more than happy to discuss it.

It is ironic that as we start on the commemoration, the Minister for Education and Skills is considering reducing the status of history at junior certificate level. At a time when we are commemorating the most important decade in the formation of the nation, history is being downgraded to an AOB item in the junior cycle which means people will not have the chance to get an appreciation of the impact of the period and the various things that happened – the First World War, the Rising, the War of Independence, the Civil War. They will all be downgraded and the only opportunity to hear about it will be at national school. It would be horrific if during the commemoration one of the marks of the decade of commemoration was the further downgrading of history. As someone with a sense of history I hope Deputy McNamara will oppose that within the Labour Party. Deputy McNamara can go now.

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