Frank Feighan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome this motion. It is very timely. As somebody who spent his time in school learning all aspects of history, I feel a minimum of two hours per week should be a requirement. In most cases this is the same or better than what is currently provided in terms of class time. I agree that we need to look at the way history is taught. When I was at school we understood our history. I came from a very strong republican background. My grandfather, James Feighan, was a commander in north Roscommon, was interned, and was a Sinn Féin councillor. I remember reading one aspect of our history, and it was an aspect of which we were very proud.

In 1982 I travelled around Europe on a double decker bus with ten New Zealanders and ten Australians, and we went through many countries, including Turkey and to the town of Gallipoli. This was an occasion of reflection and remembrance for all the Australian and New Zealand people on the bus. We were there for two or three days, and for those people it was their 1916 or Easter Rising. I was on the sidelines, but little did I know at the time that more Irishmen died in Gallipoli than Australians and New Zealanders. That was a part of history that was denied to me. In Ireland, across the Border the Nationalist and republican history was denied to Unionists. We talk about the 300,000, 400,000 or 500,000 people who signed the Ulster Covenant. I was not aware of this at school. I did not agree with it. It is something that I was not aware of. I was either looking out the window and dreaming of playing for Liverpool, or it was not on my curriculum. It was not on the curriculum. We are in an age, thankfully, in which we are open to all aspects of history. Sometimes it is rewritten by the victors, and sometimes people want to rewrite history. I think we have to be open to try and get a balanced story. There are always two sides to a story. There are grey areas. There are areas we do not want to go to.

I think the Government did a great job last year in the commemoration of 1916. It was balanced and open, and I know from my meetings with the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and the Good Friday Agreement that people are very happy that as a State we put a lot of thought into the commemoration. Fifty years ago the commemorations were much more subjective, which was unfortunate, but those were the times and that was the way it was. We should take great pride in the fact that we commemorated and celebrated. It was very appropriate.

I agree with Senator Gavan that we must remember internment.I remember a great day in 1985 when the Anglo-Irish Agreement, a forerunner of the Good Friday Agreement, was signed. It was a seismic change in that the Republic of Ireland had a say in Northern Ireland affairs. It was not like the Good Friday Agreement, but it was a forerunner of it and we must respect this. We look at Sunningdale and all of the aspects of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. There is always a counterargument to all of these things. They are part of our history, and it needs to be balanced, open and fair. I appreciate this, and those who forget their history forget everything.