Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

Citizenship of the Republic of Ireland bestows rights as well as responsibilities on all its people. We, as citizens, have obligations to our country, our communities and fellow citizens. These responsibilities were heard in the words of former Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, when he said, "Patriotism, as I understand it, is a combination of love of country, pride in its history, traditions and culture, and a determination to add to its prestige and achievements".

Some would believe patriotism is a cause and a word from a bygone era, where responsibility and obligation to the nation involve fighting for it and freedom of its people. Patriotism or love of country today no longer requires the sacrifice or volunteerism that Lemass would have known. However, it requires a new type of sacrifice, commitment and volunteerism. This new volunteerism requires all citizens to play an active part in their country's future.

Last week I met Alan Kearns, the inter-county hurler from Galway, who happens to be Ireland's Person of the Year 2006. Being an inter-county star means people will recognise one. It also means a strict diet, no drinking and ten months of social inactivity. People admire the commitment and sacrifice and it also means that one is recognised and respected. However, Alan Kearns is also recognised and respected in a small town in western Zambia called Mongu, for a different reason to his fame in Ireland. Since 2005 he has travelled there every year to lend a hand to one of the poorest communities on earth. From that time he has highlighted the story of the people of Mongu and linked it with his own village, Clarenbridge, in Galway. Through his work he has created a link between two communities, 6,000 miles apart. The story of that Zambian town has travelled down the line, like two children talking into cups linked by a piece of string. The people have responded to this story and so far have raised more than €1 million for Sr. Cathy and the children of the Cheshire Home and the town of Mongu, so that they may have a better life. This golden threat has strengthened the tie between the two communities.

Throughout this country there are thousands of people who get involved in charities such as this. This volunteerism is the force and the catalyst that can bond communities together. The Alan Kearns story shows what can be achieved when a sense of community and volunteerism are harnessed. Community is the only cure for the ills of modern living. It is the common denominator, the solution to loneliness, isolation, anti-social behaviour and social breakdown. No doubt, in today's Ireland these threads have become frayed as communities have atomised over the last few years, with people increasingly seeking fulfilment from consumer products and services on an individual level. When one hears of an old person who has been found dead, whose body had not been discovered for days, one knows that thread is broken. When one hears that depression has increased 100% since the 1980s one knows the thread is broken. It is broken where individualism and consumerism replace community as a source of belonging and fulfilment for people. The economic boom of the last few years demonstrates clearly that happiness does not necessarily follow wealth. In his first address to the Dáil as Taoiseach, Deputy Brian Cowen said:

The challenge we face to day is to temper a rising tendency towards individualism within Irish society. This individualism can sap the energy from our sense of community, which is still strong and visible in so many ways. What we must prioritise is to turn the benefits of individual flair to the benefit of the community and the nation as a whole. Our responsibility is to fuel the engine of community — to lead the change away from the promotion of exclusive self-interest towards a superior value of wider community interest. The pre-eminence of community and country and active citizenship over self promotes social harmony and a better quality of life for all.

There are those who say that in this century the world will not allow time for the fulfilment of obligations to this generation or the next. If one seeks excuses one will surely find them, but those who are too busy today will not be aware that this generation has more free time than any previous generation. Those who pursue happiness through continued self-indulgence through continuous consumerism would not be aware of studies such as Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone, which have proved that the more one gives, the more one receives in return.

The endless pursuit of riches by some who seek to achieve the ultimate accolade of being the richest person in the graveyard would do well to remember the words of Thomas Jefferson. When he was berated by his mother for spending too much time on politics and in public service to the neglect of his business, he wrote to his mother, "I would rather have it said that he lived usefully than he died rich". If a person does not volunteer in his community or if there is no community to contribute to then we build, one person at a time, an increasingly unequal society as wealth grows.

There is one force that cements a community in the lives of people, and that is active citizenship. Deputy Bertie Ahern, in his time as Taoiseach, advocated active citizenship in his speech of 30 September 2006, when he said, "I believe that the quality of life in society and the ultimate health of our communities depends on the willingness of people to become involved and active, active on behalf of themselves and their families, their communities and the more vulnerable members of society. Happy the society that has people who act, rather than lament, who organise rather than complain, who accept a personal responsibility rather than walk by on the other side". He set up the Taskforce on Active Citizenship.

Education is the key to creating the next generation of active citizens. I am happy to hear the NCCA will introduce a new subject in the autumn called politics and society. If, as a society, we believe we can send children to school, not teach them French for 14 years, and then expect them to speak French that is a fool's paradise. If we send them to school and do not teach them how to be active citizens, how to vote and volunteer, they will not be active citizens.

It is often easier to believe we cannot affect change and cannot make a difference, but think of a Galway jersey in a southern African town and the golden thread connecting Clarinbridge to Mongu. Think of the words of Mahatma Gandhi, "be the change in the world one wants to see and the rest will follow".