Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Flynn's call for a debate on Traveller education. I commend her on her powerful and important speech on the subject. She has been a great advocate for the rights of Travellers and, indeed, for oppressed and abused minorities everywhere for which she deserves to be praised.

As the Cathaoirleach commented, yesterday was the anniversary of the start of the Civil War, which is probably one of the saddest days in Irish history when erstwhile friends divided and took up arms against each other, and that great unity of purpose, which had existed during the War of Independence, was fractured. Fortunately, the Civil War did not last very long. I think that was because the participants on both sides did not want to fight.

It is important to note that the losing side, and I would be a descendent of some of those people, very quickly realised the futility of continued violence, and very quickly adopted the democratic path. They achieved an awful lot through the process in Leinster House under de Valera, Lemass and so on. It was a pity at the time that a very small minority could not see their way to go with them as that gave rise to the continued violence by disillusioned or delusional people who thought that they could shoot and bomb their way to a united Ireland. It gave rise to the 30 years of mayhem and murder that was carried out by Sinn Féin-PIRA in the North. Thankfully, the violence has come to an end thanks to the Good Friday Agreement and Sinn Féin is now in the democratic system. While I do not agree with any of the Sinn Féin policies I welcome that development.

There is a good news story about the Four Courts. The archives of the Four Courts have been refurbished, saved and recorded in digital fashion for future students. That fantastic work involved meticulous attention to detail as tiny scraps of charred paper were the only clues to where to find further information. Everybody thought that the archives that were burned in the Four Courts were gone forever and, thankfully, that is not the case. The people who worked on the archival project, especially those from Trinity College, deserve the highest praise.