Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted and honoured to speak for the Labour group on the 90th anniversary of Seanad Éireann, the 90th anniversary of the inaugural meeting of Free State Seanad on 11 December 1922. I am honoured not only as a Labour Senator, but also as a university Senator, because the university Senators have had a very proud tradition in this House. Many of the Senators, named by colleagues earlier, represented the universities.

As we look back, all of us are also conscious that we also look forward to a likely referendum on the future of the Seanad. However, as we look back over the history of the last 90 years, it is striking that a debate on abolition or retention has been ongoing throughout the lifetime of the Seanad.

I am indebted to a colleague, a senior counsel and Fianna Fáil councillor, Jim O'Callaghan, who has done extensive research on the first Seanad and wrote that a form of senate was referred to in all three of the Home Rule Bills dating back to 1886. Before the Free State Seanad was constituted, proposals were in place which varied widely. The first Home Rule Bill provided for 103 representatives in an upper house, of whom 28 would be peers, and who would serve for ten years. The Government of Ireland Act 1920 provided for a slimmed down version of 64 senators designed to ensure representation and protection for Southern Unionists in the new state. The Free State Seanad, which was finally constituted in 1922, was made up of 60 Members under Article 12 of the 1922 Constitution, and 30 of those were nominated by the President of the Executive Council, Mr. W.T. Cosgrave, who appointed what was referred to as a distinguished and talented group representative of all classes, as The New York Timesremarked at the time.

I am also indebted to Dr. Elaine Byrne who wrote a wonderful article on the 60th anniversary of the current Seanad in July 2008 in which she spoke of the first Seanad as constituting seven peers, a dowager countess, five baronets and several knights, and that the Seanad consisted of 36 Catholics, 20 Protestants, three Quakers and one Jew. Mr. Cosgrave's nominees numbered 16 Southern Unionists. It was a truly diverse group, and yet was youthful and important in the life of the first Government. The 1922 Government, as Dr. Byrne has written, had no practical experience of parliamentary life. The young Ministers relied enormously on the Seanad, along with the Civil Service and the Army, because the Seanad influenced the guiding principles and legislative foundations of the State, representing, as it did, more of an establishment culture.

It is also interesting to note that those first Senators were subject to serious intimidation and threats. In the light of what is happening in Northern Ireland at this time, it is particularly poignant to read that by the end of March 1922, as a result of anti-treaty opposition to the Seanad, 37 Senators' homes had been burnt to the ground and Mr. Cosgrave's home was scorched. There was a good deal of intimidation of the early Seanad.

Fianna Fáil opposed the Seanad in advance proposals in 1932 before it came to power, and it was in its election manifesto for the 1932 general election. As O'Callaghan writes, they promised to abolish the Seanad.