James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Exit Deputy James Browne, enter Deputy James Lawless. I welcome this Bill. Fianna Fáil will support it. It is important and fitting that we would have such a day of remembrance and recognition for the national shadow which, as Deputy Tóibín eloquently articulated, is cast by the Famine some 150 years later, which continues to shape our demographics, our patterns, our politics and perhaps our tribalism in many ways which we may not even fully appreciate. Deputy Browne spoke about Famine graveyards which are found in every corner of the country. Much of our heritage and history is made up of Famine rocks, mass rocks, Famine sites and Famine graves. As a child, I spent time in Gorey, County Wexford, where I grew up. The Famine graveyard in Clonattin was regularly visited. Bizarrely, it was almost a place we used to gather and play in the fields. I remember seeing the dichotomy of the likes of the Rams, the great families of the time, with great ornate statues and vaults to their name - God rest them - side by side with mass graves of Famine victims where we had the prince and pauper lying side by side. They are not so much equal in death as they are unequal in their commemoration and remembrance, and they were certainly unequal in life. That imagery and manifestation of what happened cast a long shadow in my view and, to an extent, on my political beliefs.

On the causes of the Famine, Deputy Tóibín's opening remarks outlined some of the logistical difficulties with the empire, which was stretched at the time. The sun never set on the British Empire. Perhaps, as its closest dominion, we were not most closely favoured when it came to dispensing largesse, dispensing provisions and ensuring supplies were maintained. The question arises of whether it was genocide or gross negligence and to what degree it was inflicted. Was it accidental or deliberate or was it by design? Did free trade policies lead to the refusal to import or trade corn? Many economic and historical arguments can be made. It is reminiscent of the modern parallel, the Brexiteers, with the obduracy towards Ireland, the refusal to countenance Irish interests and the refusal to understand what is happening in their nearest neighbour. We see that in some elements of the British establishment today.

Thinking of the Famine and why it is so important, I think of the constituency I represent, Kildare North, and talk about the number of sites around the country. Naas General Hospital, which is very much alive and thriving today, is based on the old Famine workhouse. It predates it. That is the origin of that hospital. There is a long shadow to the present day, where people are being treated as we speak and staying there as the hospital expands. It is very much the heart of the county hospital. That is built on the site of the old Famine workhouse.

The effect of the Famine was felt on families, in our demographics and in our patterns. I was talking about the negatives of the British-Irish relationship. There were positives in the movements of people. We obviously would not have wanted it to have come about the way it did, but there has been a long history of migration in both directions. In my family, my late father, James Keith Lawless, passed away shortly after I was elected to this House. He grew up in the north of England. He was a proud Irishman but he traced routes back to his predecessors who left Ireland around the time of the Famine to travel to the north of England for work and for salvation and to get away from the desperation and desolation that prevailed in Ireland at the time. Those movements go right through to my own family. Many families and people in Ireland can trace back memories, shared history, direct history and folk history of events that took place in those times.

Before I was in this House, I worked in the city centre in other occupations. I often walked down the quays and stopped and studied and spent some time mesmerised by the figures on the quays, where we have the huddled masses, in their desperation, heading towards what we imagine must be a Famine ship or coffin ship about to take them away down the quays. We can see those figures. I am not sure what artist created them but with the desperation engraved upon each face, eye, look back and the mutual co-dependency between the mother with a baby, the father figure and the older man, the family trying to make their way with whatever few possessions they could to a ship, a place of alms or a workhouse, it is an amazing piece of art.

Unfortunately, many of those journeys ended in tragedy. We are all aware of the coffin ships and Famine ships that plummeted to the bottom of the sea once they got out of port. One story that caught my imagination was from Delphi, County Mayo. Many families travelled from a village in desperation, trying to head to Delphi, which was the nearest town, across the mountain, for salvation, alms, food and succour. When they arrived, unbelievably, they were turned away. Grotesquely, they were turned back. There was no room at the inn. They had to begin the long journey back even more weakened.

I remember visiting Achill recently and seeing the forgotten village, as it is called. Captain Boycott's cottage is there in Achill too, although he was better known elsewhere. Clare was where he really had his rack-rent landlord days. The forgotten village is reminiscent of the Marie Celeste. It is a place where an entire village was evicted by an absentee landlord. People were put on the road and moved on. Nothing ever came of the village. The houses stay intact. The buildings are intact, motionless, frozen in time, with the people who lived there gone forever. It was totally devoid of benefit to anybody, whether man or beast. There are lessons in that. In one of the many debates we had in the House lately on housing and the rental crisis, I was reminded of the three Fs which were the pillars of the Land League at the time: fixity of tenure, fair rent and freedom to buy out one's own lease. They are being talked about in the modern time as issues for the rental and housing sector. It is a little sad that we have come 150 years and yet are still stuck with dealing with many of the same issues as occupied the minds of Parnell, the Land League, Davitt and people of that ilk.

I thought I had ten minutes but I am not sure how the time has been divided. I think there were to be ten minute slots.

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