Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has been an honour to be part of the Vótáil 100 committee in the Oireachtas and to work with colleagues across the House in marking the centenary of women partially achieving suffrage. There were many events during the year, including visiting England with the portrait of Countess Markievicz and visiting Eva Gore-Booth's grave. There was a very powerful transition year debate in which young people from across Ireland participated. In that, we looked back at the past century to the radicalism and the struggle to achieve suffrage then, but we also looked forward to what we hope for in equality and equal participation in politics in the future. It was a very important moment for us. Looking to the past and the diverse traditions from which the women, and men, who fought for suffrage came, and then looking to the future and seeing the young people today all acknowledge that we have not achieved equality, but that they all want it and that the momentum is there, it was clear, hearing them speak, that we are at a particular moment which is also part of history.

In 2018, we are at a moment when women's equality has moved from issues of potential access or representation or being able to enter systems to a point where women across politics, the arts, science and every area of public and collective endeavour are saying they do not want merely to participate but to shape these areas and determine them. We are looking for systemic change for a politics that is deeply equal and not just equal participation in politics.

That momentum is there and that is the sea-change we are looking at. There is a backlash and there are authoritarian elements who wonder when the sharing of power is being pressed forward.

This is a wonderful moment in history and we honour the incredible vision of those who lived 100 years ago. It is very important that we do not now say that is the part of our centenary celebrations where we celebrate women because it is not over. There were women such as Winnie Kearney who put an incredible socialist vision of what the nation might be into her manifesto when she ran in Belfast and Constance Markievicz who was a Minister for Labour and sat in the First Dáil . It is very important that we keep a focus on the contribution, actions and ideas of women in shaping the First Dáil and its programme and the rest of our history. I look forward to ensuring that remains part of our discussion on this centenary. It has been an absolute honour to work with my colleagues in these Houses in this year and I look forward to working with them in further commemoration and further transformation of our country.