Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I was not here yesterday or this morning because I was in Geneva, at a UN human rights conference. The conference was held in the United Nations building, which formerly housed the League of Nations. It is a formidable structure, a classic 1930s building on a huge scale. It is worth remembering what happened to the League of Nations, in spite of all the optimism which Ireland, through Éamon de Valera, invested in it. The League collapsed in the greatest war the world has ever seen.

Good things do not happen inevitably. The best intentions in the world do not mean that what we desire will happen. The League of Nations is a very good example of the fact that things do not always happen because they are good things we wish to happen. We will all have to reiterate that line.