Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to support the motion and be a co-signatory to it, and I commend very warmly my colleague, Senator Conway, as has everyone else, on the drafting and tabling of the motion. I thank the Minister for his earlier contribution and I look forward to his reply in due course.

As the Acting Chairman will remember from our days on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, it is important to declare one's interests and I will declare mine. History was absolutely my favourite subject at school and Mr. Halliday was my favourite teacher. I studied history at third level, my sister studied history at third level and my brother studied history at third level and he now teaches history at second level. It is through this further learning that I knew how much more we could learn from history.

For once, I found myself agreeing with almost everything Senator Gavan said. His remarks on the Spanish Civil War were very welcome. It is something I did not study in much detail at second level but I did at third level. The Senator might find it amusing that my sister did her thesis on the great republican, Bob Doyle, and the International Brigades-----