Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Bloomsday, which celebrates a great writer. James Joyce's imagination and creativity made him an exile and he chose to live outside of this country. His departure was a great loss to us, although he remembered Dublin. Interestingly, it has been said that if Dublin was laid to waste, Ulysses could be used to reconstruct the city because it is so topographically and geographically correct. I ask that we remember this great writer today.

I would never presume anything about the background of any Senator because I have a great belief that when they join this Chamber they come with a wealth of knowledge and expertise. I know Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is not here but I wish to point out that I come with a wealth of experience in the arts.I was reared, and have worked, in the arts. There are young children in the Visitors Gallery today, who are very welcome, and I know that singing, dancing, drama, visual art and sport mean a great deal to them. Many of them might go on to have a career in that area. I worked from when I was a child in the arts, right up to being involved in Dublin City University, DCU, the Larkin concert series, artists in residence, arts in education and I know what the arts mean to culture and creativity and how they have a language above and beyond politics. In Palestine, where there was terrible trauma and terror, I saw how the arts superseded that. I wish to point out to Senator Ó Ríordáin that the Taoiseach has a spokesman for the arts in the Seanad, one who is very vocal, perhaps verbose and very dramatic, although it is great to be a visual aid for one's subject. I hope to continue to do that and to argue as a spokesman for the arts with all parties in the House in the future. We should never presume about the expertise of whoever is sitting in front of or behind us or about what they bring to the House, as one can see with the new brilliance in backgrounds which the 42 new voices and faces have brought with them.