Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Senator has left me with the smoking gun. I thank Senators for their very kind welcome. We are exceptionally honoured and humble to be here. I am very grateful for the extraordinary community of Trinity College Dublin graduates. I am privileged to be a member of that community. I grew up in Finglas, went to the Christian Brothers and was very fortunate to go to Trinity College Dublin. The ethical and intellectual formation I got in my studies there and the debates during that wonderful time in the 1980s when I was 19 or 20 years old really was part of the reason I pursued the research I did while I was an Army officer and some of the other directions I have taken in my life, so I am very grateful to Trinity as a university and an institution, but also to that community of support without which I would not be here.

I am struck by the painting behind the Cathaoirleach. My grandmother, Máiréad Begley, was born in Killorglin in 1900. She came to Dublin in 1916 to became a primary school teacher. She was radicalised by the events of that year, particularly the execution of the leaders of the 1916 Rising, so she joined Cumann na mBan. In 1919, she qualified as a teacher and got a job in Scoil Bhríde, which was then located on St. Stephen's Green. It was Ireland's first Gaelscoil, set up by Louise Gavan Duffy. My grandmother taught there from 1919 until 1965. In 1919, she became involved with the south Dublin brigade of the Irish Republican Army, IRA.She participated in firebombing police stations located all across south County Dublin and in Wicklow, including in Blackrock, Cabinteely, Dún Laoghaire, Bray, Greystones, Dundrum and Blessington. They were all attacked by my grandmother and her friends. Therefore, I like to think she was a typical woman, multitasking by being a schoolteacher by day and an arsonist and freedom fighter at night.