Seanad debates

Tuesday, 28 May 2019

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

2:30 pm

Photo of Michael McDowellMichael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Sorry, the local elections. I particularly mention the candidates who are assisting our group of ten Senators, two of whom were elected, Geraldine Donohue and James Geoghegan, and one of whom, my own Samantha Long, was not. I acknowledge their courage in standing and thank them for all they do to keep this House functioning so well. It is great to see people who participate in the affairs of Leinster House and are also willing to put their names forward, knowing, as they do, the risks of failure and success.

I add my voice to what Senator Marshall said about Northern Ireland. The flag beside you, a Chathaoirligh, the national tricolour, is a flag of green, white and orange. It is about time that we stopped talking in simply binary terms about demographics and who will be 51% and who will be 49%, when that no longer represents the reality or complexity of Northern Ireland society.

The Senator arranged a visit for a number of us to Belfast recently. We visited the mothballed assembly at Stormont. We received a briefing in a fine chamber, which was the original senate chamber of Northern Ireland. The thought occurred to us on that occasion that it would enhance the political process in Northern Ireland if there were a civic society, non-confrontational forum in the Northern Ireland parliamentary process as well as the highly numerical and highly polarised assembly elections operating as they do very much on the basis of headcounts of a green and orange kind.

I congratulate all of the people who were elected to represent Northern Ireland in the European Parliament for however long their term lasts. It is significant that two out of the three candidates supported remaining in the European Union. Naomi Long's success, to which reference was just made, symbolises that there is a middle ground in Northern Ireland. Not everybody is of one shade of orange or green, as Senator Marshall has said. In that context, in this State we should be much more generous to the orange tradition. We should acknowledge it. We have things like the Royal Dublin Society, the Royal Irish Academy, King's Inns and Trinity College. We have all sorts of institutions that have orange origins if one wants to put it in those terms.

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