John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator Alice-Mary Higgins spoke about women and families and we can start and finish there in relation to many things when it comes to trauma, stress and violence. It is the women who pick up the pieces. I am reminded of a poem from the First World War, although I cannot remember who wrote it, which asked did not the German mother sitting at home knitting socks for her son at the front have the same instinct and feeling as the British mother. There is no difference when it comes to families. Can we move back from the centre and find something we all understand emotionally?

When I was a small fellow in second class at school in Tipperary, one of the teachers, Mr. Corcoran, who was not a Christian Brother, told us a story about a British soldier who jumped onto a grenade from which the pin had come out to save his comrades. He gave his own life. It was not until 20 years later that I began to take an interest in the Somme, Passchendaele, and the First World War, having studied the war poets. I wanted to see where some of them were buried. I was interested in Thomas Kettle, Francis Ledwidge, Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen. Reading a book by Philip Orr on the 36th Ulster Division, I realised that the man Mr. Corcoran referred to was a member. It was the only division with a placename in it. The incident happened a day or two before the Battle of the Somme commenced. I reflected on his sense of love, care and respect for his brothers. The tragedy of Northern Ireland is that there is as yet no settled understanding of who are our brothers and sisters there. We are coming to that slowly.

A different story I tell relates to disability. The Irish Wheelchair Association and its athletes have always operated on a 32-county basis. There was no division. Lads would go from Dublin or wherever to play basketball on teams from the UK or Northern Ireland. I know one man who lost his leg in a sawmill. He played basketball with lads who lost legs in other activities. They were participating in a sport they could enjoy. On the way home from Belfast, these lads needed a comfort break, so to speak, and their bus pulled over on a country road north of the Border. The lads disembarked to do their business and were surrounded in the next instant by British soldiers. The tension was diffused when one of the lads said with typical Dublin wit "If ye put away your weapons, we will put away ours". There was a sense of sport and the community thing it can be.

There is a Seanad by-election around agriculture currently. Surely, that is something that can be dealt with on an all-island basis given that it is the same weather and farmers face the same issues. There has always been great support from the Republic for Northern farmers, often more than has been provided by their own government which may not have the same sympathy or closeness to it. I go to the Continent of Europe and people ask me what is happening now. They have a sense of fear about it. I have more colleagues on the Continent in relation to disability than I have in Northern Ireland. It is something I have to ask myself about also. The paraphernalia and psychology of a border have the potential to trigger us too easily back. The ability to take risks is needed again. Another way to look at risk-taking is as the building of confidence. If we are not building confidence, we are eroding it. Since the start of last year when democratic processes, such as they are, were placed on hold, it has caused an erosion which is very dangerous. Senator Higgins referred to the hawkishness in Europe and around the world now. It is too easy for some people to slide us back into something. Those of us in the Chamber and those who have an involvement in Northern Ireland must step closer to each other. Even if it is only in relation to sport, people must come together. We are at a very difficult moment. I am grateful for the opportunity to have contributed to the debate.