John O'Mahony (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I second the motion. I want to support the sentiments in Senator Conway's motion. As a former teacher of history at both junior certificate and leaving certificate levels for many years, I am very much behind this motion. It would be ironic in 2017, after the very dignified and respectful commemorations of 2016 and of the First World War, if we were to have any dilution or reduction of the priority given to history our schools and in our educational system.

All the ceremonies that took place were better understood by people of our generation, and other generations, who had history on their school curriculum as a central, core subject. It reminded them of the history that they learned in school and it brought back some wonderful memories. Some of them were sad memories. Everyone involved needs to be congratulated on the respectful way the events were done last year. There was a fear in advance that it would resurrect old sores but that did not happen. The events of the last year and the last couple of years will ignite and raise the interest of young people. We all know that nowadays it is very hard to get their interest, but the recent events, ceremonies and commemorations will certainly raise the profile of the need to understand our history. We need to have a knowledge of our past in order to know how to shape and guide our future.

Some of the best teachers I remember from my days as a student were history teachers. In St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Professor Tomás Ó Fiaich, who later became a cardinal and Primate of All Ireland, used to come in day after day and paint wonderful pictures the events and brought them to life for us. This was before there were any PowerPoint presentations or anything else. That left an indelible mark and gave me and my fellow students at the time a love of history.I very much support the idea behind this motion and to prioritise it in the new curriculum that have to be introduced. However, history should not be lost as a core subject in our education system.