Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Thomas Francis Meagher not only ran for parliament, unsuccessfully, for Westminster in 1848, he was a leader in the rebellion in Ireland of 1848 for which he was put on trial for high treason. He was the last man in Ireland to be sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. Prior to sentencing the judge asked him if he had anything to say, to which he replied: "Well your honour, I give you my word as a gentleman that if you do not sentence me to death, I will try again." The judge obliged and sentenced him to death but the sentence was commuted to transportation for life to Australia. He escaped from Van Diemen's Land and travelled to America where he joined the 69th regiment of the Union Army in the American Civil War and went on to become the Governor of Montana. As befits a man who had an extraordinary life, he had an extraordinary death. One evening he was on a paddle steamboat on the Missouri River but the following day he was gone never to be seen again. He was only 43 years of age when he died.

It is important to note that Thomas Francis Meagher gave us the flag and his aspirations for the flag. He said: "I trust that beneath its folds the hands of the Irish Protestant and the Irish Catholic may be clasped, in generous and heroic brotherhood." His message is as true today as it was 170 years ago. I ask the Leader to make a few comments on this historic occasion. Let us bear in mind that this House formally adopted, for the first time ever, protocols for the national flag.