Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I really enjoy coming into this House for two reasons. First, it works ones imagination, feeling and thinking, and I thank Senator O'Donnell for that. Second, this subject is close to my heart. Anything to do with education and the wider elements of education are important. Therefore, I thank the Senators for putting down this motion. It has turned into something of a tennis match or a debate on how some pronounce "tomato". That is okay because any opportunity to discuss anything to do with the future of this country or the education system is a good opportunity. I note Senator Noone and a few of her colleagues in this House have asked for a further debate with the Minister for Education and Skills and I will certainly be reflecting that demand.Historical skills will continue to be core. I say that with confidence, and not just from a curriculum or Government point of view, because in the past year I have had the enormous privilege of visiting many small and large communities where there is a major appetite for learning local history. Senator Bradford referred to opportunities missed in the past. Parishes in my county have links to the First World War and men from them and neighbouring parishes died on the battlefields. This morning I was in a wonderful place in Clondalkin and saw the mix between community bunscoileanna and meánscoileanna in terms of community development. Part of the mix involved the Irish language. It is major project.

I have visited places such as Ennis and secondary schools all over the county. I have been to Limerick and Gaeltacht areas of the Sean Phobal and Rinn Gaeltacht, the Múcraí Gaeltacht of west Cork, Kerry, Mayo, Galway and Connemara. There is a major yearning to learn history. We as legislators have to respond to that community demand. That is what we are trying to do in the changes we are making. Any type of change involves consistencies and inconsistencies. It is about showing leadership in responding to a community-led appetite.

I have confidence not only in our current history teachers but in the new teachers coming through the system, as well as potential history teachers in primary and secondary schools who are in university. I have confidence in giving them the responsibility to articulate local history. Senator Mooney used the term "trepidation," and I will never forget the trepidation I felt on my first day of going from a small rural primary school to secondary school. It is different now, and that was a long time ago, 1983. I still remember that trepidation and disconnect from the local, and even though the school was only 12 miles away I never had an opportunity to learn about the rebel priest Father McFadden, or Cardinal Logue, who was born in my parish, because there was no curriculum that gave the opportunity to be creative about learning local history and geography.

It is not a black-and-white issue, but we have an opportunity to continue the debate, work on the creative mind and return to imagination. As a maths teacher in Letterkenny in 1993, I remember the change that took place when first year students moved to second year. I could make Pythagoras' theorem exciting to a first year student, and we discussed the Greeks at length. It is a long time ago, but between first and second year I found the mind became elongated around streamlining, subjects and exams. As legislators, we have to continue to challenge ourselves as to how we can work the creative mind of the people of this country.

People do think differently now. There is a sociological term for young people who were born with the Internet: "digital natives." They think, see and do things differently, but they still have an appetite for the local and for history. When I was born my house did not have a landline, and I am sure it was the same for Senators Mooney and Wilson. Some people were born with dial-up broadband, but there are new digital natives in this country. As legislators we have to respond to the changing dynamic.

One of the reasons we have to keep history at our core is that we need to know how our ancestors overcame challenges and adversity in the past. Senator Heffernan is one of the lucky ones who had a appetite for history in primary and secondary school. I only developed it in the past ten years. However, as someone from a Border region, my history was pretty black-and-white and shrouded in anger and a "them-and-us" approach. I went to university across the Border and met young 18-year-old boys - I did not think they were boys at the time - from Manchester and Liverpool with guns. That is a type of history, and I was trying to learn it amidst a shroud of negativity.

As a Leitrim and Cavan man, I have space because of the peace process. When everybody was talking about the peace process in 1998, I did not know we would create a new space and I did not know what it meant. It means that we can now learn our history in a protected environment. That can involve people from south Armagh going to Glencolmcille to learn Irish. Linda Irvine, who is from east Belfast, told former UDA paramilitaries that the name "Ibrox," the home of Glasgow Rangers, comes from an Irish word.

I was in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh a number of years ago when Robin Eames said that education is what it is left when everything else has been forgotten. That is where our responsibility lies. We have to consider being creative about our history, which is our job as legislators.

I mentioned the First World War. Senator Jim D'Arcy never taught me history, but from knowing him I know that he probably made it real, connected people to their past and gave them objectivity. We have to ensure the objectivity that did not exist when I did my intermediate certificate is present now.

I could go on all day. I feel passionate about the education process. I want to express to Members, as legislators, that the mood out there is positive in terms of the appetite for learning our history. We cannot set aside our language as an independent correlation or parallel to history. I learned Donegal history, probably in the right way, for the first time over the past year. I am learning Donegal Irish for the first time, words such as "millteanach," where I was taught "uafásach," both of which are wonderful words. I am learning more about my place. I was taught the word "freisin" in school, but "fosta" is the Ulster version. There is also "An seachtain seo a chuaigh thart," the week that went by, instead of "an seachtain seo chaite", and "gasúr dalba" for "buachaill dána." I am learning this wonderful richness. I am learning about places like Cuan na Beirtrí Buí in west Connemara and finding out a lot about our history. I heard about An Teach Dóite, in Galway, whose name in English is not a direct translation. We have to be open to change, because people constantly change and evolve. We are in a new space. Next year, 2016, is the year in which we will see change and communities responding to ways of reflecting on where we were 100 years ago, how we can learn from the past 100 years and how we can imagine the future, of which the next generation will be a part.

Go raibh míle maith agaibh arís. Níl an díospóireacht críochnaithe. Tá a lán oibre le déanamh amach anseo agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le gach Seanadóir a ghlac páirt sa díospóireacht anocht. Go raibh míle maith acu agus chífidh mé iad amach anseo.