Bertie Ahern
Question:6 Mr. B. Ahern asked the Taoiseach the plans, if any, the Government has to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Thomas Davis. [16789/95]
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Thomas Davis Commemoration.
No plans were made to commemorate the 150th anniversary two months ago of the death of Thomas Davis on 16 September 1845.
Will the Taoiseach agree that it would be suitable to have an official commemoration of a person who clearly expressed the pluralist society along with other speakers at the time? I urge the Government to make a formal commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of Thomas Davis.
Normally, commemorations of this nature are planned at least a year in advance. It is now two months after the appropriate date. No proposals were inherited by me from the previous Government for any commemoration——
The Taoiseach is in office almost 12 months.
——and no suggestion of a commemoration was made to me until this question was tabled, two months after the appropriate anniversary.
So we did not ask the right questions up to now.
The Taoiseach is in Government.
I have paid tribute to the memory of Thomas Davis. As the House may or may not be aware I launched the first official biography of Thomas Davis to be published this century.
I commended the author on the publication which is most important because it recalls the work of a man whose views and thinking were seminal. His achievements were not gained by any physical actions but through the written expression of his opinions. It is important to recognise that Thomas Davis showed the pen is mightier than the sword.
I am happy to know the Taoiseach launched a book. I am sure he launches many books but for the very reason expressed by the Taoiseach, that he sought inclusiveness and unity through his words. Thomas Davis merits an official commemorative ceremony.
It is important to recall that Thomas Davis was commemorated in the past by the House in a formal manner. It is probably appropriate to concentrate out attention on the 150th anniversary of 1845 since Thomas Davis was extensively commemorated in 1945. On this occasion we should concentrate, perhaps, more inclusively on all the victims of the Famine. This is the Government's priority in its commemoration and it is concentrating its energies on the Famine and those who died as a result.
Anybody who peruses the writings of Thomas Davis, as I have, will be aware that he expressed concern about the economic conditions in the country at that time which contributed to the scale of the disaster caused by the potato blight. While it would not be correct to say the commemoration of the Famine involves the commemoration directly of Thomas Davis, it is appropriate to point out that in commemorating the Famine, and those nameless people who died during it, we are also paying a tribute indirectly to Thomas Davis——
That is very convoluted.
——for the way he, through his writings, identified some of the malfunctions of the Irish economy in the 19th century which contributed to the Famine.
Blather.