Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Treacy. The issue I wish to discuss is the need for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Government, to promote a national minute of silence to be observed at 11.02 a.m. on 9 August, the 60th anniversary of the last major catastrophe of the Second World War, the bombing ofNagasaki city, in order that Ireland may join in similar commemorations across the world.

I raise this issue on the suggestion of Mr.Gearóid Duffy, to whom I am grateful. On 9 August, a World Culture of Peace Day has been organised in Cork as part of its European capital of culture celebrations. The significance of this date is that it is the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki city, the last major catastrophe of the Second World War. It is an anniversary that will deservedly be marked in various ways throughout the world. I am sure we in this House applaud the action Cork has taken in this matter. I suggest to the Government that it embrace this action and turn what will be essentially a local commemoration into a national event that will reach out to all citizens.

I suggest this can be done by declaring a national minute of silence which would take place at 11.02 a.m., the time the bomb exploded at Nagasaki. It would be a simple gesture which would cost nothing to organise but could have a very worthwhile effect. I am 68 years of age and was therefore only eight years old when this catastrophe occurred. I have no memory at all of it. It is therefore safe to say that, for the vast majority of people in this country and certainly for all our young people, the event is a matter of history. However, we should not allow ourselves to forget this history, although it is all too easy to do so.

The dangers of forgetting our recent history were exemplified in the recent referenda on the EU constitution. The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs attended the marvellous address by the European Commission President, Mr. Barroso. The younger generation has forgotten that the EU first came into being in an effort to avoid future war in Europe. That is a pity because it provides a powerful underpinning for the whole European project and justifies all the troubles we encounter along the way. Similarly, it would be wrong and dangerous for us to forget the incredible havoc that the nuclear weapons wreak, an historical example of which were the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those events profoundly affected the history of the following half century. While I grew up and during much of my adult life, the threat of nuclear war was real and it remained so until the end of the Cold War 15 years ago.

Since then, the threat has retreated to the back of the public consciousness, which is remarkable because it has not disappeared. Indeed, due to the new form being taken, the threat is far more likely to become a reality. During the Cold War, the balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in a stalemate. Now the threat of nuclear weapons comes not from two superpowers vying with each other but from smaller states who are far less likely to be neutralised in a stalemate similar to that of the Cold War. Today, Israel has nuclear weapons at its disposal, as do both India and Pakistan. As we all know, North Korea and possibly Iran are in the process of developing nuclear capabilities. As these terrible weapons proliferate, the danger that they will actually be used in warfare increases exponentially. We are all inclined to bash the United States these days, perhaps for good reason, but we cannot deny that the US Government is alert to the threat. Any policy differences we may have with America should not blind us to the reality of the threat and that it is in our interest it does not come to fruition.

In this matter I do not call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to dismantle the nuclear threat that faces the world today. For all his qualities, I fear that task would be beyond him. I am calling for a national gesture of a moral kind which would raise awareness of the issue while demonstrating where we in Ireland stand. A national minute of peace would be observed in the interests of honouring the dead, injured, bereaved, traumatised and dispossessed of all wars and to keep one eye on the future. It would be a minute during which we can ask ourselves whether we are doing all we can to put in place the skills of peace in our own lives and in our communities, as well as internationally. I commend this proposal to the Minister of State.