Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

That violent spark in 1916 set the flame of nationalist ambition which set up this democratic institution. The people who did that wrote the title deeds of the House in which we stand today. They opened the door for women to have a role in Irish public life for the first time. The work which has been done by the Vótail 100 committee and by the women's caucus has been useful in reminding us of the need to open that door ever wider. It is true that in the first 50 years as Members concentrated and looked inwards to set up the Constitution, to keep this House safe, and to make it stand, the door closed slightly on female emancipation, though no more than slightly.

Equally and worryingly, at the same time 2 million of our people closed the door as they left and took the boat to different parts of the world. We managed to turn our country around, however, through the work that was done in those first few years and through the building blocks which were laid, including an unarmed police force thanks to Mr. Michael Staines; an independent Judiciary; a free press; and this democratic House as the cornerstone of every decision that has been made. We can be proud of that, of what has happened to this country, and of what we have done in the past 100 years.

We need to go back further again, however, and look back to our deeper republican roots. Perhaps we should go back 200 years and ask what does it benefit us to be a country, a people and a Parliament in solidarity with peoples all over the world, particularly those suffering oppression or hardship, if we are still so alienated and removed from our own cousins, the Dissenting and Protestant traditions which exist up the road from us? Should it not be set as our goal for this House and our country to open up and reconcile the divide which still exists from that day?

We have done well. It was said the other day at a meeting in the Royal Irish Academy attended by a number of our most famous and best historians. My assessment of their assessment was that this democratic, constitutional Republic of ours has served our people well. We have to open the door to further equality, fraternity, female emancipation, and a new economy that lights a new flame for our times.

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