Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House and thank her for outlining the wide ranging programme. I served on the Decade of Centenaries committee for the last four years. It has been a long journey and there were lots of concerns, but from this side of the house we are delighted with the Government programme. I think it is very comprehensive. The schools programme outlined by the Minister is only one part of it but all the other aspects of it are equally comprehensive and it will make for a very good year and appropriate celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising. I wish to pay particular tribute to the Minister and while I understand that we should not name officials in the House I will name then anyway: praise is due to John Concannon and to Sinead Copeland and to all the officials who put in so much effort. They are not just doing the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., they are going to the events in the evenings and at weekends. They are putting in an enormous amount of hours.

The question has been asked, “What are we celebrating?” I have debated this theme with the chairman of the Thomas Francis Meagher Foundation, the Reverend Michael Cavanagh. He is not just a Church of Ireland reverend; he is also a lecturer in Trinity College on ethics in engineering. He was in charge of the Jubilee Line underground extension in London and he is also an adviser to NASA on safety critical systems. We discussed 2016 and what it is we are celebrating, about the promotion of pride and respect for the Irish flag and its meaning for peace. He pointed out that we must focus on what it was we were trying to achieve, not who it was we were trying to achieve it against. What we were trying to achieve is contained in the Proclamation about equal rights, equal opportunities, and civil and religious liberties.

In some senses, what we will be looking at next year is celebrating how far we have come. The UN Human Development Index puts Ireland 11th in the world out of 196 nations, above our nearest neighbour who is 14th. We must also reflect upon how far we have yet to go to achieve all those aims and objectives contained in the Proclamation. The reflection on how far we have come in attaining those aims we sought to achieve 100 years ago is a rightful part of the celebrations.

The flag and the description of its colour, as described in Article 7 of the Constitution, is central to this. In the education process, in the Department of Education and in primary and secondary schools, the national flag is described as green, white and orange. Not green, white and yellow, not green white and gold – it is green, white and orange. It is orange for a reason, the significance of which was outlined by Thomas Francis Meagher when he talked of the colours and their symbolism for peace between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants. Those aims and words are as relevant today as they were 100 years ago or 160 years ago when Thomas Francis Meagher spoke of them. When he spoke those words I do not think he would have believed that they would still be quoted all these years later and that when he flew the flag for the first time on 7 March 1848, that the second time it would fly would be on Easter Monday, 1916. Now, thanks to the Minister and the officials, all national schools and second level schools in the State will be presented with the flag by Proclamation day. In the case of the secondary schools those flags will have flown from the building where the first tricolour was flown. I wish to pay tribute to the Minister and the officials for working with the Thomas Francis Meagher Foundation. The foundation has an impressive line-up of supporters including Irish athletes Henry Shefflin, John Treacy, Cora Staunton and Niamh Briggs, Brian Schweitzer the former Governor of Montana, Congressman Thomas Rooney and Congressman Joe Kennedy, the grand-nephew of John F. Kennedy and the grandson of Robert Kennedy. Another honorary board member is Packie Bonner who gave us back our flag, in a sense, when he saved the penalty in Italia '90. That occasion allowed everybody to fly the flag with pride. This pride will happen again in 2016, but it will also allow us to celebrate appropriately the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Rising and I look forward to working with the Minister and the Government on ensuring that the year is one where the whole nation can celebrate together.