Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ar dús, céad míle fáilte chuig Seanadóir O'Hara. Comhghairdeas. He is very welcome to the House and I really look forward to working with him. I will be very proud to serve in the Seanad with him. I also welcome his family, who have just departed. Like most family members, they have gotten sense at this point of his career. They will be there at the times he needs them.

I welcome the opening of the world premier of The Pull of the Stars at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. The Gate Theatre is at the top of O'Connell Street on Parnell Square in the heart of my constituency. I congratulate in particular Róisín McBrinn and Colm O'Callaghan for bringing this world premier of Emma Donoghue's The Pull of the Stars to the stage at the Gate Theatre. They had the opening night last night and it was a world premier. Emma Donoghue herself is an Oscar and Booker Prize nominee, a woman and probably one of Ireland's finest writers. The play is set in an 1918 pandemic maternity ward. It is a real experience and a tour de force of the human experience. It has real resonance in the 2024 post-pandemic Dublin of today and is set on stage in the Gate Theatre, which is in the shadow of the Rotunda Hospital and which is the world's oldest maternity hospital. The setting could not be more perfect. The play deals with the universal themes of hope, struggle, resilience, the connection of relationships and of class. Most importantly, it presents the women's experience. It presents sisterhood, maternity, birth and death. It is truly a tour de force and an extraordinary production. I encourage people to attend.

It also deals with the most incredible Dr. Kathleen Lynn. As the Leader knows, I have brought a motion to this House and Fianna Fáil, the Labour Party, SIPTU, Fórsa and many other groups support the naming of the national children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn.