Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 3 Jul 1998

Vol. 493 No. 6

Bicentenary of 1798: Statements.

The Taoiseach

In this bicentenary year of the 1798 Rebellion, we have been commemorating the birth of democracy in Ireland in very difficult conditions. There is nobility in the ideal of uniting Irishmen and Irishwomen of different traditions and in the rejection of inherited sectarian bigotry. National independence on this basis is also a noble ideal. Even though this first attempt tragically failed, it left a living inspiration that remained with the people both in Ireland and in Irish communities abroad. We also honour this year the memory of the many thousands of our forebears who fought and died or who were sent into exile. While some cast aside the privileges of their position, it was mostly with what Wolfe Tone called that respectable section of the community, the men of no property, that they combined to forge a new national consciousness.

Throughout the country the commemoration has been carried out with understanding and sensitivity, recognising both the positive part played by all traditions and the suffering borne by all traditions and on all sides at that time. By an extraordinary conjunction of circumstances, part of the background to the bicentenary this year has been the negotiation and achievement of the first ever comprehensive peace settlement on this island, which has the support of most of the parties and a large majority of the people, North and South. The wounds and divisions of the past 200 years can now at last be gradually healed. I believe that something of the spirit of the United Irishmen has entered into the making and implementation of the British-Irish Agreement.

There has been an impressive interest shown throughout the country in the commemoration. There has been an eagerness to learn more about the past in different localities and a desire to walk in the footsteps of those who went before us, which has led to some very moving recreations of the past. Over 1,000 commemorative events were scheduled to take place this year, North and South. From the William Orr commemoration in Templepatrick in County Antrim, to Oulart Hill in Wexford, from Bantry Bay to Inishowen, from Ovidstown in Kildare to Ballinamuck, County Longford, there has been a spectacular level of popular participation from communities throughout Ireland.

The Government, working through the 1798 Commemoration Committee chaired by the Chief Whip, Minister of State, Séamus Brennan, has assisted a large array of projects. However, it must be emphasised that the initiative has come mostly from local communities and organisations with the Government playing a more supportive and co-ordinating role.

Popular interest in 1798 has also been demonstrated by the impressive viewing figures for the three major TV documentaries on the rebellion, on RTE, BBC Northern Ireland, and Teilifís na Gaeilge. There has also been an excellent response to the two major exhibitions on 1798 —"Up in Arms", at the Ulster Museum in Belfast, and "Fellowship of Freedom", at the National Museum in Collins Barracks. There has been, as was the case for the Famine commemoration, an upsurge in valuable publications and reprints, which will permanently improve our knowledge and understanding of 1798. I am also delighted that we have a permanent interpretation centre in the National 1798 Museum in Enniscorthy. There has also been a great deal of international interest — including events in America, Australia, France, England, Canada, Italy and Scotland. The Tour de France visits Ireland for the first time as a tribute to the close Franco-Irish alliance which was reforged in the 1790s.

What has been gratifying has been the willingness of the different traditions in Northern Ireland to take ownership of 1798 as part of our common heritage, both for better and for worse. In our approach to the commemoration, we have laid special emphasis on the non-sectarian principles of the United Irishmen. We have highlighted the tremendous contribution of the Irish Presbyterian tradition, with its dignified pursuit of civil and religious liberties for all. We have also stressed the wider international setting of 1798, locating it within the influence of the American and French Revolutions.

Given the evolving peace process, it was inevitable that the vision of the 1790s would serve as an inspiration for the 1990s. The United Irishmen belong to every political tradition in Ireland and their example can help us to think imaginatively and dynamically about our current situation.

We have consistently striven to apply the living principles of the United Irishmen — their pursuit of democracy, pluralism, non-sectarianism and their optimism about Ireland's economic potential — rather than focus exclusively on their ultimate defeat on the bloody battlefields of 1798. The United Irishmen have been much in our remembrance this year, as we seek to construct a political philosophy, North and South, which is free of illusion but not generosity. The best possible commemoration of the United Irishmen's struggle would be the consolidation of a stable and inclusive settlement in the North.

I congratulate everyone involved in the bicentenary, particularly those countless individuals who have done trojan work at ground level to put projects together. I thank Minister of State, Deputy Séamus Brennan, chairperson of the Government's commemoration committee and the members of that committee for the fine job they have been doing.

As a result of the work of many different people, we will be able to speak in future of 1798 in an informed and a measured way and with an ability to distinguish the similarities and the differences in the situation that has evolved over 200 years. Some of the ideals have been substantially realised while others remain elusive. However, their refreshed capacity to inspire will long outlast this year.

Mr. J. Bruton

Professor Louis Cullen, the distinguished historian, stated that public commemoration tends to simplify things, often using historical events to support some current point of view rather than seeking to understand that event in its own right. This is true of all commemorations. I would like to put the 1798 Rebellion in its broad historical context. It was part of a worldwide effort to assert the rights of man, to assert the idea that power came from the people through the ballot box, not from God through a king, and to assert that people had inherent rights. This was a truly revolutionary idea in the latter part of the 18th century. At that time the divine right of kings was the prevailing wisdom.

From an Irish point of view it is important to trace the origin of the concept of the rights of man. It started in the presbyteries and at the church meetings of the Protestant people of the Presbyterian and evangelical traditions. They were the first to believe that churches should be governed on democratic rather than hierarchical grounds. They brought these ideas with them to colonial North America and out of that came the American Revolution with its democratic ideas and its rejection of monarchy. Out of that in turn came the work of Thomas Paine who wrote The Rights of Man and Common Sense and, through Lafayette and others who participated in the American Revolution, out of these came the inspiration for the French Revolution.

The United Irishmen published Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man in Ireland.

Mr. Quinn

It sold 40,000 copies.

Mr. J. Bruton

When the United Irishmen entered Antrim town they were singing La Marseillaise. This puts in context the universality of the ideas.

The 1798 Rebellion should not be seen purely as an Irish separatist movement. Thomas Paine said "My country is the world and my religion is to do good". He rejected the idea of a country on its own and he also rejected organised religion. It was not an accident that those who rebelled were of Catholic and Protestant traditions. The idea for which they stood was one which rejected sectarianism and narrow nationalism. They fought for the universal rights of man. We must also understand the great optimism of the age. Thomas Paine wrote "Nothing of reform shall be held impossible in an age of revolution". That sense of the possible should be seen as a part of the 1798 Rebellion.

The United Irishmen were practical people. It may throw light on current controversies to reflect on some of the elements of the original United Irishmen's manifesto. They suggested that Members of Parliament should be paid a salary, which was a truly revolutionary idea at that time. They also suggested that Members of Parliament could be required to vacate their seats if two thirds of their constituents signed a petition asking them to do so. They were in favour of universal suffrage for men, although they did not conceive of women having the vote. They wanted constituencies of equal size. It took Senator John O'Donovan, a Fine Gael member who became a Labour Party member, to introduce that element of the United Irishmen's manifesto in the 1960s.

Mr. Quinn

There is always room for converts.

Mr. J. Bruton

We must be realistic about the rising because some terrible events took place. I do not think the United Irishmen engaged in systematic brutality, although those who sought to defeat the rising did. Systematic brutality was part of the method of operation of the militias and the yeomanry. However, atrocities were committed on the United Irishmen's side, at Wexford Bridge and Scullabogue for example.

Not everybody supported the rising. The majority of the Catholic priests of the Diocese of Ferns strongly opposed the rising. The then President of Maynooth College, Dr. Hussey, subsequently Bishop of Waterford, also strongly opposed it. Many of those who served in the militia were not Orangemen but Catholics who opposed the rising for whatever reason, either because they were pressed into it or because they had some little property which they thought the rebellion might take from them. It is also important to remember that the French Revolution had not been kind to religion. One of those who would have led the French invasion, Admiral Hoche, had been responsible for the brutal suppression of Catholicism in the Vendée in France a few years earlier. Not everything to do with the French Revolution was good. The guillotine is one of its gifts to the world.

This was an ambiguous time and people were justified in having different views about the events of that time, just as people are justified in having different views about today's events. We should not deify any particular political tradition. We should recognise that the people of 1798 on both sides were human beings with all the faults of humans.

The 1798 Rebellion was a great achievement. Over 250,000 people were members of the United Irishmen, a remarkable feat in a time when communications were bad. The United Irishmen, in the face of a lack of means of communication, ingeniously communicated the date for the rising by stopping the coaches. There was activity of some kind in 23 counties. The rebellion was not confined to the Pale, the south-east and the west.

I compliment those involved in the commemoration. While I compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Séamus Brennan, I am sorry the Taoiseach did not refer to the good work done by the former Minister of State, Senator Avril Doyle. I am sure it was an omission.

The Taoiseach

It was and I am happy to correct it.

Mr. J. Bruton

I thank Deputy O'Kennedy who suggested that we should have these statements. It is appropriate that we should discuss historic events from time to time. Perhaps the historic event of the 1798 Rebellion will allow us to put our present struggles in their true perspective and to recognise that we are passengers passing through.

Mr. Quinn

I compliment the Government and the previous Government, in particular the former Minister of State, Senator Avril Doyle, for the work on the commemoration of the 1798 Rebellion so ably carried on by the Minister of State, Deputy Séamus Brennan. The recent re-examination by historians of the events in 1798 is a vindication of revisionist historiography. The term ‘revisionist', particularly when used in relation to history and historians, is often used as a term of abuse. However, history and historians who do not seek to revise history are of little use. By definition, history should be in a permanent state of revision. That is not to say that in response to existing nationalist historiography some revisionists have not fallen off the wagon on the other side, so to speak.

We now know that the rising of 1798 was more complex and profound than its depiction by nationalist historians. The picture of a green, Catholic and peasant uprising which we were taught in school is no longer sustainable. Consider, for instance, the Battle of Oulart Hill in Wexford. In that battle the Catholic and Irish-speaking peasantry fought on the side of the north Cork militia against the insurgents. The leaders of the 1798 Rebellion and the United Irishmen were often middle class and Protestant. Beauchamp Bagnell Harvey, President of the Wexford Republic, was a Church of Ireland landowner. He and others received their political inspiration from the American and French revolutions. If not egalitarians in the contemporary understanding of that world — the declaration of the Wexford Republic, for instance, contained no reference to women — they were undoubtedly democrats and passionately anti-sectarian.

Two hundred years after 1798, it is interesting to see how much their vision was distorted by politicians and historians alike. That distortion is best epitomised in the centenary celebration of 1798 one hundred years ago. Thankfully, the bicentenary has begun to rescue us from Boolavogue and Fr. Murphy, but there is still a long way to go.

That is hardly surprising. The myth of the rebellion received the official backing of this State since its foundation. The history of 1798, as a green, nationalist and Catholic uprising, has been taught to Irish school children up until recently. It is little wonder that view of history is so pervasive — so pervasive that until recently it has hardly been questioned.

That is why the greenest and most confessional party in this State has been able to call itself the republican party since its foundation without anyone batting an eyelid. It is the reason the current self-styled republican movement, sectarian and nationalist as it is, is readily accepted as representative of republicanism, although I have been repeatedly at pains not to use that title.

The legacy of the 19th century is that Irish republicanism departed significantly from its 18th century forefather. Separatism, only one part of the 1798 agenda, became the cause céle bre of the Irish variant and remained so. It has always been my view that those who campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, and parties like the SDLP which preached a message of tolerance and non-sectarianism, have more in common with the men and women of 1798 than those who bear the contemporary republican mantle.

In every other European country, the real inheritors of the republican tradition have been the left. It is the parties of the left which took the democratic and egalitarian instincts of republicanism and developed them further. It was the left parties throughout the world which took republicanism's legal description of rights and gave it economic flesh.

In Ireland, it is now time for the left to reclaim the spirit and the values of 1798. The signing of the British-Irish Agreement, 200 years after the events of 1798, gives us a unique opportunity to do that. The constitutional or national question, in so far as it created political divisions in this House and in this Republic, is now over.

The Taoiseach

That is revisionism.

Mr. Quinn

Welcome to the free State, Taoiseach. The 95 per cent vote in favour of the Agreement in the South signalled a decisive end to green irredentism. The Irish people, North and South of the Border, have set themselves on a new path — a path based on consent, mutual respect and mutual tolerance. As this week's events indicate, the years ahead will not be easy. A significant minority of people reject the Agreement, but their obsession with the past cannot be allowed to halt progress for everybody.

Ten years ago, the cross-party consensus on Northern Ireland set out in the British-Irish Agreement would have been inconceivable. Ironically, the party that has done most to claim credit for the events of the past few years, Sinn Féin, would not have accepted it. It is the members of that party who have joined the rest of us, not the other way round.

Nevertheless, the issue which has given rise to consistent division within this Republic is no longer that source of division. Civil war politics carry no relevance for the new Ireland — we on the left believe they have not done so for the past 30 years at least. The implications for the body politic are therefore profound. What has passed for politics here will no longer suffice. The people who capture the public imagination in the future will be those who set out a vision for this country and for our world in the new millennium.

We now have an unprecedented opportunity to develop European-style left versus right politics. This is the purpose behind the discussions about to take place between my party and Democratic Left. Together we are the true inheritors of 1798 republicanism.

The society we build must reflect real republican values. Despite our recent economic growth, our society remains deeply divided. Inequality has increased in real terms. Houses prices are an accurate measure of that kind of inequality — £6 million for a house at one end of the spectrum and 40,000 people on the housing waiting lists at the other. Basic rights are denied to many of our citizens, particularly those with disabilities. Unemployment, and the despair which goes with it, remains high. Our national infrastructure remains relatively backward by continental norms and, as we approach the new millennium, we still do not have a universal health care system, not even for children. The list is long and I could go on but time does not allow me to do that.

The British-Irish Agreement, coming within weeks of the height of the 1798 celebrations, is a happy coincidence. We are poised on the edge of a new millennium at a time when we can make this country a truly better place and a real republic for all those who live in it.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Molloy)

In commemorating the events of 1798, 200 years on, we can rejoice in the knowledge that many of the ideals promoted by some of its enlightened leaders are now slowly but surely becoming a reality. Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen recognised that an independent united Ireland depended on establishing unity and healing the distrust between the main traditions on this island.

After 30 years of bitter sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, we are now witnessing an inclusive process which seeks to give equal legitimacy and respect to the two traditions in the North. Those of us who aspire to a united Ireland are happy to accept that its achievement can only come about with the consent of the majority in the North. The historic British-Irish Agreement is based on sound democratic principles and offers accommodation and compromise in place of conflict and accommodation.

The 1798 period was one of rarely paralleled human suffering in this country. Thousands of people died or were wounded as they sought to defend themselves against tyranny and oppression. I am glad that in the series of successful commemorative events that have taken place, sight has not been lost of the many honourable loyalist victims who were civilians caught up in the rebellion in Wexford and elsewhere. There has also been a strong acknowledgement that atrocities were perpetrated on all sides. This is important because we would have done ourselves an enormous disservice if this commemorative occasion had been merely a selective recall of the events of l798. Instead, the events of that year have been recalled warts and all.

The commemoration has seen a reawakening of spirit and pride among many communities throughout the country. In addition to remembering 1798, there has been a great sense of celebration of where this country is now — prosperous, proud and confident as it moves into a new century.

The international dimension of 1798 has also been to the forefront in this commemorative year. The links forged then with America, France and Australia have their modern equivalent in the central role we now play with 14 other member countries in the European Union, in the strong Dublin-Washington connection which has proven to be of great value in the context of Northern Ireland, and in the excellent relations we enjoy with countries throughout the continents.

There is one relationship, however, which has undergone an enormous transformation in the past 200 years, namely, the one we enjoy with our nearest neighbour, Britain. The historic events we have witnessed in recent months, most recently seen in the inaugural session of the New Ireland Assembly last Wednesday, could not have come about without the sense of common purpose shared by the British and Irish Governments.

In the establishment of the Council of the Isles as part of the British-Irish Agreement, we can see the potential for a closer and more productive relationship. The inspiration for both Governments has come from a sharing of many of the ideals which provided the dynamic for the l798 rebellion.

In the same way as the United Irishmen the two Governments, and indeed most political parties North and South, did not see religious, ethnic and political diversity as an obstacle to progress. Rather these diversities were seen as a glorious opportunity for everyone to work together and seek to establish a wider, more tolerant and generous vision of Irish identity.

The United Irishmen did not seek to cling to a divisive past; they sought to create a shared future. The events of 1998 thus far on this island suggest their dreams may well be realised.

I pay tribute to those people who have contributed and will contribute in the months ahead to the commemoration of 1798. If those who fought and died in 1798 could see what has been achieved today they would be truly proud of the strides we have made as a nation. There is a range of serious social problems which require our urgent attention, but let us not forget all that has been achieved. Neither should we forget the rights and privileges we enjoy as citizens in this modern democracy, rights and privileges denied to our forefathers for too long.

Proinsias De Rossa

The 1798 rebellion began as a noble endeavour inspired by the American and French revolutions. The ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity, backed by the military power of the French revolutionary state in the context of a war with Britain, made the rebellion possible. Support for the rebellion grew from the political ferment that swept the country following the revolutionary advances in America and France, fed by the brutal physical oppression of the common people and of religious sects who did not conform. Political newspapers and pamphlets abounded. Tom Paine's The Rights of Man was read the length and breadth of the country and the radical newspaper, the Northern Star, enjoyed a huge circulation. Paine's message, simply put, was that every individual should have equal rights and citizenship. That message was not only for Irish people, it was for the people of the world.

It is ironic that 150 years passed before the introduction of a universal declaration of human rights, which incorporated the essence of Tom Paine's writings in international law. It is unfortunate most of the population outside the developed world still do not enjoy the rights enshrined in that universal declaration. It is even more ironic that I had to raise here a breach of the universal declaration of human rights by one of the most powerful states in the world, the United States, which has maintained a blockade against a tiny island off its coast for the past 38 years, ten years after the end of the Cold War. The Government should protest about that matter. It is not enough to refer it to the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. It is extraordinary, despite the fact Pope John Paul criticised the blockade and that there is universal concern about the pain, suffering and ill health caused by it, it is maintained. This action by the United States is in breach of at least three or four——

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy has five minutes and that time should be devoted to the matter under discussion.

Proinsias De Rossa

If we are to commemorate 1798 and the writings of Tom Paine we should stand up and be counted——

An Ceann Comhairle

The matter the Deputy is referring to is not relevant to the statements.

Proinsias De Rossa

——in the case where people's rights are denied at this time. It is 200 years since 1798, but at this minute people are dying because they are denied human rights.

Mr. J. Bruton

The problem relates to Florida.

Proinsias De Rossa

The year 1798 was a time of intense political debate and the concept of democracy was enthusiastically endorsed by substantial numbers of people. The Society of United Irishmen formed the basis of a popular, radical mass organisation. By making common cause with the Defenders, however, an organisation of agrarian conspirators, the United Irishmen threw away a golden opportunity to advance democracy and were drawn into what became a sectarian blood bath, 30,000 people were killed in the course of the rebellion. This was communal cruelty and savagery on a scale unknown in Ireland before or since. The outcome of the rebellion was not the unity of Catholic, Protestant and dissenters, but the Act of Union. The possibility of reform was closed off and State repression became the order of the day.

The United Irishmen were high-minded, brave and courageous. Their forward-looking programme based on the ideas of the Enlightenment, sought a better future for the people of this island. The Defenders, on the other hand, sought only to right past wrongs, real or imagined, and they placed a greater store on the rights of property than on the rights of man.

Many agendas were pursued in the 1798 rebellion. Crude sectarianism was evident in abundance, but it can also be seen as the Irish manifestation of a widespread demand for individual human rights and dignity against tyranny and oppression. Those who fought and died, apart from dying for religion, localism and nation, were also fighting for liberty, equality, fraternity and the rights of man. Furthermore, 1798 was the culmination of the development of the Irish Protestant dissenting tradition.

What followed 1798 was politics based on ethnicity. Republicanism was subsumed by nationalism, of which the historian Eric Hobsbawn wrote, "it is not nations or states that make nationalism, it is the other way around". The ideals of 1798 were turned on their head, and the 19th century witnessed the emergence of Catholic nationalism that mirrored the loyalism that was by now almost exclusively Protestant. These two conflicting national allegiances were at the heart of the conflict in Northern Ireland over the past 30 years.

The British-Irish Agreement offers a truly historic opportunity to end decades of bitterness and violence and create new structures that will deliver lasting peace and political stability within which a new politics can emerge. The Agreement may well prove to be as significant a milestone in Irish history as 1798 itself.

Wolfe Tone is synonymous with the United Irish rebellion of 1798. He is remembered mainly as a separatist whose principal aim was to ‘break the connection with England'. He is less well remembered as a staunch opponent of sectarianism.

The most appropriate commemoration of 1798 would be to ensure that religious sectarianism is overcome in Irish life. It should be acknowledged that sectarianism is not confined to Northern Ireland; its ugly traces are to be found in the Republic also. In this regard, the completion of the report by the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation sub-committee, dealing with obstacles in the South to reconciliation would be most helpful and its publication very instructive. Eradicating sectarianism will not be easy. It is deeply ingrained in this island. Wishful thinking will not make it go away. It means confronting the issue at source, in communities, schools, workplaces, sports, wherever it raises its head. Just as the dead of 1798 were buried in their thousands, let this generation honour them by burying sectarianism for all time.

Mr. Gormley

I compliment the Government Chief Whip and Senator Avril Doyle for helping to organise the commemorative events. It is right and fitting this House gives time to discuss 1798. I recently visited the commemorations in Wexford and Carlow and a local historian told me that in Oulart, the scene of one of the bloodiest battles, some local people still have the scapulars from the Cork militia who were butchered on the day. Those unfortunate individuals thought that by holding up these holy objects they would show they were not foreigners and they would be spared, but sadly that was not to be. They were slaughtered in a most gruesome fashion. That such historical artefacts can still be produced shows just how recent these events are. History is never far away in Ireland. It is important to analyse history, not to let it enslave you.

There are important lessons to be learned from 1798. In the first instance we need to examine the reasons for the 1798 rebellion. What was the political and philosophical climate of the time? It was not only about Irish nationalism. Locke, Kant and Voltaire advocated the primacy of reason and science. Rousseau rejected rationalism. He believed that good government was created by free individuals who entrusted part of their freedom to the State for the common good, a phrase we do not hear enough nowadays. These ideas were to form the basis for the modern democracy and inspired revolutions in the latter part of the 18th century. Nationalism played a part in 1798, but equally the people and sovereignty played a huge role.

In England John Wilkes, who was elected to Parliament in 1763, advocated parliamentary reform and supported the American colonists. It was interesting to listen last night to Vincent Browne interviewing Bob McCartney who quoted John Wilkes in justifying the actions of Orangemen who now want to break the law by going down the Garvaghy Road. The catchphrase for many decades afterwards was "Wilkes and Liberty". The punitive taxes of King George culminated in the American Revolution in 1776, which was presented to the world as a struggle for universal liberty, equality and republicanism. The fall out was the French Revolution and in Ulster the Presbyterians celebrated Bastille Day. In 1791 they formed the United Irishmen and Henry Joy McCracken was joined by Wolfe Tone. When the United Irishmen sought the French as allies the Government sought to suppress them — 1798 showed it was an idea whose time had come and there is nothing stronger.

How would those who sacrificed their lives feel about the political set-up today? We enter a post-political age because of globalization, but more disturbingly, we enter a post-democratic era and we must look at this. Deputy Quinn said the Left is the real inheritor of 1798. If that is the case, the Left must oppose globalization. We have not even debated the multilateral agreement on investment and GATT in the House, issues which will have a profound effect on people's lives. Equally, there is further centralisation of power in the EU and this leads to a democratic deficit. As practising politicians we need to address that. Today we are told of new figures which indicate the Celtic tiger is roaring on, but what about the terrible inequality in society? Oliver Bond was one of the leaders of 1798 and it is ironic that one of our most deprived flat complexes is named after him.

Mr. Browne

(Wexford): A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, why were back bench Members, such as myself, excluded from this debate? It is not acceptable that cosy arrangements are made between party leaders.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

If the Deputy waits, we will see if we can facilitate him. The Chair is not responsible for the Order of the House, but if the House is agreeable, given that it is the last day and in acknowledgment of the constituency the Deputy represents, I have no problem with facilitating him.

Mr. Gormley

I have not used all my time. The Deputy may use the rest of it if that is agreeable.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Mr. Browne

(Wexford): I join in congratulating the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Deputy Brennan, and his predecessor, Senator Avril Doyle, for their participation in and the tremendous work they did organising 1798 functions. I wish to put on record the tremendous work of Comóradh Nócha hOcht in Wexford, which has organised functions for the past year and participated in Vinegar Hill Day which was held last week. It was a huge success with more than 50,000 people attending. We must recognise the heroic deeds of the men and women of 1798 regardless of which side they were on because they sowed the first seeds of democracy in Ireland, which all of us enjoy today. A 30-minute debate in this House on 1798 is no more than tokenism. There should have been a full debate with all Members allowed to contribute and I ask the Whip to provide more time in future when such arrangements are made.