Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Mooney's call for an end to the foot-dragging on the 1916 commemorations. I have mentioned this once or twice before. I read a newspaper article by historian Diarmaid Ferriter, who is on the commission, in which he declared his impatience with the Minister's tardiness in presenting it with a plan. She has given a commitment to come before the House, but she should have done so before now. In the absence of a formal Government blueprint, every kind of revisionism is gaining a foothold. I do not want to dump on Sinn Féin again, but the most ridiculous occurrence was the announcement by Deputy Gerry Adams last week that John Redmond was a man of violence. I had to laugh at that one. We need the Government to announce a plan. There is a certain tardiness on the Government side. Maybe it is worried that in some way the celebrations would turn into some kind of post hocvindication of the terrible atrocities that occurred in the North and had absolutely nothing to do with 1916. I can understand that, but we need to have an agreed procedure for the nation to pay proper homage to the leaders of 1916.
Members have received correspondence from a number of county councillors on the title of mayor not being applied in certain municipal areas. There is a Lord Mayor of Dublin, a Mayor of Limerick and a Mayor of Galway, but there is no mayor, for example, of Listowel, where I come from, Killarney-----