David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is really distinctive. Tá an Ghaeilge go flúirseach agam agus blas álainn dílis Protastúnach agam. Ba mhaith liom an Ghaeilge a labhairt sa Seanad ó am go ham, although not as often as I would like. I would like to support Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh. This is something very distinctive about our culture. I greatly regret getting rid of the old cló Gaelach, through which I learned Irish. It was a really distinctive alphabet.

There are wonderful paintings. This morning I passed an art gallery that was showing paintings by Seán Keating of the Aran Islands ferry setting out and Aran Islands fishermen and their distinctive costumes, with the pampooties and little jackets. It is wonderful stuff. There were also paintings by Paul Henry who produced paintings depicting the majestic landscape of Connemara.

Where literature is concerned, like all parts of Ireland, Galway has a special element to contribute to world culture. I am thinking, in particular, of Pádraic Ó Connaire and stories such as M'Asal Beag Dubh which we all read in school. It is a most enchanting, delightful book. Pádraic Ó Connaire also wrote the most searing accounts of sexual and social isolation which would not have been printed or allowed in English. He was writing these wonderfully insightful stories in the 1920s. Of course, he was a bit of a drinker. When the statue of him was unveiled in Galway, some rag put a bottle of whiskey in his hand.