Seanad debates

Wednesday, 12 February 2003

Private Business. - The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (Charters Amendment) Bill 2002: Second Stage.

 

In relation to the use of the word "Royal", I grew up in what I might call a republican family and I recall my father, a strong republican in those times, pointing out that, whenever a revolution occurred in the Roman empire, people did not get rid of the statues and other memorabilia of the previous administration. On a visit to St. Petersburg some years ago – it was then Leningrad – we were told that on the night before the October revolution, Lenin took the revolutionaries aside and warned them not to damage any of their history and traditions. In fact, the revolutionaries did not damage any of the memorabilia of the previous Czars, even though they hated them. In my view, apart altogether from the marketability of the word "royal", we should not be frightened of holding on to our traditions.

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