Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I, too, congratulate both the Leader on her work on this Bill and the Smith family. It means an awful lot to so many people. We cannot be anything but moved by Senator Seery Kearney's words, because so many of us have experienced that loss. We are here and we are listening because we know that that life matters. Even though they are not here, they matter every single day of the week and every single day of the year. I really welcome the Bill and congratulate the Leader. I thank the Leader and the Smith family for their work on it, because it is very important.

I came in today to congratulate the Irish women's soccer team on their historic win against Scotland and to highlight the importance of that. I remember standing in my kitchen as a young girl, looking at Alan McLoughlin scoring that goal to get us to the 1994 World Cup. Now, Amber Barrett is a national hero. I never thought an Irish girl could don the Irish jersey and represent her country at a world cup. We really have created new national heroes.

However, moving on from that, the story that has brought down the heroism is a problem we have to highlight.As a country, we have failed to recognise what "Up the 'RA" means. It is not simple. We should apologise to these young women because we have not educated people on what that slogan means. It is not an innocent catchy slogan; it means death, explosions, heartache and agony. We have failed to describe and explain the filthy rotten reality of the war that went on all around us on this island and what the IRA were and are to this day. They were indiscriminate murderers, rapists, drug dealers, smugglers and extortionists who threatened communities all around this country. There was no beautiful glorious search for independence involved in threatening neighbours to keep their mouths shut because they could be next. When the IRA went looking for protection money, if you had paid the other crowd, you did not have to pay the IRA. It was filthy and rotten. There is nothing to celebrate about either the British Army or the IRA because both perpetuated the agony of war and are now responsible for prolonging that agony. We have elected representatives standing at the graves of terrorists, and soldiers who were involved in collusion and murder have been talking out of both sides of their mouths in respect of the truth of what happened to many victims. When families such as that of Columba McVeigh are not able to bury their loved ones, we have serious problems. We need to stop misrepresenting history and trying to change it and lie about the truth of the IRA. These people murdered, attacked, raped, threatened and stole. That is the truth. We have a choice. We can keep pretending that it is innocent to say "Up the 'RA" when we are referring to an organisation that murdered fathers, mothers, pregnant women, daughters, nieces, friends and nephews. This House, this State and this entire country has a choice. We can either act to educate people and face up to bitter reality or we can continue to ignore the truth of the slaughter that went on and continue to make little of this slogan. We have a choice and we should make the right one.