Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

Today is a red letter day for the Seanad, not so much because the Government was defeated on two votes, but because it has exposed a trend I have detected in the lower House over the past 13 or 14 months. I am reminded of a statement made in the lower House in 1934 which is worth putting on the record as it is symptomatic of what is happening here.

The direct quotation is as follows: "... the Blackshirts were victorious in Italy and the Hitler Shirts were victorious in Germany, as, assuredly, in spite of this Bill and in spite of the Public Safety Act, the Blueshirts will be victorious in the Irish Free State." So declared former Attorney General John A. Costello of the Cosgrave Government when a Bill restricting the wearing of political uniforms was introduced in the Dáil.