David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Exactly. When will the Leader move it? There is the Leader's privacy Bill and my privacy Bill. I think the three matters I have isolated are of particular concern still.

Two on the same page have a certain poignancy, particularly for Members in this room. I am talking about the proclamation of 11 May 1798 promising a reward for the discovery of Lord Edward FitzGerald, wanted for high treason. FitzGerald would have walked many times through these rooms. There is a proclamation on 29 June offering a £1,000 reward for the capture of Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, another one of the great people of 1798. The Minister referred in this speech to the first citation among the instruments of England from 1066 to 1707, "Proclamation publishing the peace (Magna Carta)", so we can see that by 1215 the Magna Carta had reached Ireland. There is a tremendously interesting amount of history here, and for that reason I am not surprised that the Irish Manuscripts Commission published this series of volumes of scholarly work. Of course, such instruments should be cleared out of the way so that people will have greater accessibility to the living statutes.

I think it was in the time when Mr. Mansergh was Minister of State that they got rid of a capital offence, the uttering of the phrase "Crom abú", which was the war cry of the Butlers of Ormond, the traditional enemies of my own Gaelic Irish family, who had very considerable difficulties. I did not have time to see if they were reflected in this.

I congratulate the Minister of State. I am sure that even though he was not expecting to be in this Chamber, he found it interesting and amusing if he had an opportunity to roll his eye over the many and various quirky, curious and antiquarian aspects of this legislation. It is very appropriate that in this House, Seanad Éireann, we should be discussing such an interesting Bill.