Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. The year 2016 will be a great year to be a schoolchild due to the extraordinary range and depth of programmes that the Minister and her officials and committees have conjured up. Of course it has been more than conjuring and it is the result of much hard work, but there is imagination at work also in trying to reach out. The programme offers certain big pieces and events, but it also reaches out to the imagination of our young people and our small children. One of the events that appeals to me is where first and second class children, and perhaps even younger, will examine what it was like to be a four year old in 1916. It is from the stories which people tell about their experiences that children learn.

Senator Coghlan recalled his own great moment of glory, holding the flag and listening to the anthem. These are the moments that people remember and imagine and in talking of their experience they inspire children to think “Well I want to run for Ireland,” or “I want to play football for Ireland”. For the little ones at school, examining what four year olds did in 1916 will engage them in a way that perhaps history books cannot or will not. That is what is good about the range and depth of these programmes. As the Minister has said, there is something in this programme for everyone.

In looking at the plan for County Sligo which will have 55 events, not all about the schools, the key intersecting themes of remembrance, shared history and reconciliation, refection and re-imagining will be the cornerstones of all the events we will enjoy and celebrate next year. I believe it genuinely is a year to celebrate. While it is important to commemorate, I am a believer in looking to the future. What have we learned? By looking back we can be inspired by the people who fought and died in 1916, we can take that learning and it becomes about what we can do in the next century and beyond. Rather than it be a sad moment it becomes an inspiring one. There is plenty to be inspired by in the events to take place, many of which have been outlined today.

The bilingual education piece for next year is particularly important and I welcome it. Níl móran Gaeilge agam féin ach cuirim fáilte roimh na rudaí atá ann ina thaobh. It is important that we have an emphasis on the Irish language next year on an all-island basis. The Irish language will play an important part next year and I am delighted to see this.

The Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology will invite primary schools to submit short films based on any aspect of 1916. It is lovely to see opportunities for third level students to interact with younger students and the skilled people who work hard at the institute looking after that project. It is one project that I will certainly be looking out for. The Abbey Theatre production of "Me, Mollser" for fifth and sixth classes, will be taken on a nationwide tour. This is a lovely opportunity for theatre to be taken out from the confinement of the actual theatre and for people to understand that the Abbey Theatre has been around for over 100 years and has played its part in who we are as a nation.

I want to salute the idea of sharing our flag and of reinventing our connection with the flag and what it stands for. In remembering the message that the flag belongs to all of us as citizens of this country it becomes not a political emblem, it becomes ours and it belongs to everybody. I am delighted to see that children will be engaged in this message through the Army, which is a lovely way of organising it, so they will then understand when they see the flag flying that it belongs to all of us.Is there an opportunity for the harp to be included in our celebrations next year? We are the only country in the world with a musical instrument among our emblems. It was on the Irish flag for centuries. We retain it on the beautiful leather seats in the Seanad and on the President's flag as one of our official emblems.

Some younger schoolchildren will be examining the family life and cultural life of 1916. Social media overwhelms most of our young people's lives and they are good with it. Examining the role of film, theatre, literature and print at the turn of the last century would be good for them. They may be surprised to discover that a great deal was happening. The telephone had been invented by that time. They may discover that some of the things they are used to doing on social media had their roots further back than they believed.

Local stories will be important. Through schoolchildren, each county will celebrate its stories and people. As with Senator Eamonn Coghlan's experience with the flag, it is the stories of those who lived in 1916 - neighbours, grandparents or great-grandparents - that will awaken for children a better understanding of what happened. Reaching out through those family connections will be important.

It would be remiss of me not to mention William Butler Yeats in this context. We have had a successful year of celebrating his birthday. In his poem "The Leaders of the Crowd", he wrote: "Truth flourishes where the student's lamp has shone". This is a nice line to take from Yeats, though not one with which people might be too familiar. As part of the joined-up thinking to which the Minister referred, this afternoon we celebrated with the Minister for Education and Skills and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the book produced by more than 100,000 national schoolchildren from throughout the country in celebration of Yeats's birthday. Each child examined two poems, painted pictures and wrote a poem of his or her own. At each education centre, we selected four or five, which we produced in a book, The Magic Within. It was a perfect opportunity for the two Departments to join hands and work together, which they continue to do through the cultural charter. The Creative Yeats national secondary school competition encouraged young people to use social media to engage with Yeats. An essay competition was also run by Callan Tansey Solicitors. It is good that our young people are looking back and finding ways for their futures to be inspired by what happened many years ago.

We will have a busy year. I would love to be a schoolchild next year. I am sure that all of us as public representatives will play our part in helping to celebrate this moment in our history. It will be a beacon for the next 100 years. I thank the Minister for her and her Department's hard work.