David Norris (Independent)

It was Billy Wicklow's father, who himself became Roman Catholic when he married Eleanor Butler but his father was Church of Ireland. The supporters were people such as Colonel Moore and Mr. Benjamin Haughton. First, they ran it past the Anglican archbishop and then they could not find the Roman Catholic one so they ran it past the administrator of the Pro-Cathedral. They more or less got the okay, but there was also a proposal to introduce a chaplain. Frankly, that is daft.

The one thing that the Earl of Wicklow said that was sensible is that surely there has seldom been a parliament in the history of the world that finds itself more in need of divine guidance than ours. There may not have been then but there is now and it is this one. I object strongly to the prayer. Others have talked about respect for the conscience of atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and others. I am a believer and it is because of my belief that I object. I find it insulting to my belief that every day we go through a rigmarole, which I regard as a piece of humbug, because the prayer says:

Direct, we beseech thee, O Lord, our actions by thy holy inspirations and carry them on by thy gracious assistance; that every word and work of ours may always begin from thee and by thee be happily ended; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Do we seriously want to lump the responsibility for some of the nonsense that goes on in this House on God? Was it not enough that they crucified Jesus Christ without sticking him with the responsibility for this? I really do not agree with it at all.

Senator Yeats took up a similar position with regard to the Irish language. He said it was all histrionics, because they wanted it in Irish as well. That was all playing to the gallery. It was nonsense. He exposed it by saying it was histrionics and saying that he was going to move an amendment that they should not do it until a majority of Members of the Seanad could speak Irish. Approximately two of them could at that stage. That was more grandstanding.

I respect the cultural traditions. I was one of those who spoke out in favour of the Angelus. I do not agree with tearing away our cultural heritage, but I was alarmed to hear that we should almost be grateful that we were not required to say the prayer. What kind of country would we be in if we were required to say the prayer? I object strongly to the Constitution. I am a believer; I go to St. Patrick's Cathedral every Sunday. In my family I have people who suffered during the penal laws, including a Roman Catholic bishop who founded an order of nuns and an order of monks. The Constitution begins:

In the name of the most holy trinity, from whom is all authority and to whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and states must be referred,

we the people of Éire, humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our divine Lord, Jesus Christ...

Do they? This is a legally enforceable instrument, as I found in a case before the High Court where a Protestant judge, the late Herbie McWilliam, found that although all the evidence I had introduced was accurate and correct, nevertheless, he had to find against me because of what he called the Christian and democratic nature of the State, referring to the Constitution. It is effective in law when it suits them to persecute minorities but not when it comes to foreign policy. If people are serious about the Constitution, they should act on it.

Let us have an ethical foreign policy. I have always spoken on behalf of an ethical foreign policy. I was the only person to vote against a beef deal with Iraq and sucking up to Saddam Hussein. I was told from the then Government benches that what I was suggesting might be the morally correct thing to do but I was asked whether we could afford it. We now see exactly the same thing with regard to the Chinese. We were afraid to mention Tibet, or as Senator Zappone said, to list the political prisoners. We sucked up to the Americans when they had rendition flights through Shannon Airport. How Christian is that?

On the document that Senator Mullen produced, I do not always agree with Pope Benedict, but I was moved by what he said about the power of weakness and the power of love. I genuinely dislike this prayer because I do not believe that it is altogether sincere. I am on a number of boards where they say prayers and as a Christian I am disgusted by the fact that they recite those prayers and then they set into each other and hack lumps out of each other. Let us be consistent.