Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 7 Dec 1983

Vol. 102 No. 7

Order of Business.

Professor Dooge

It is proposed to take Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 and to take No. 5 if time is available. The Senators of course are familiar with the phenomenon that towards the end of the session we have a rush of legislation. Accordingly, I think the House should endeavour to clear any legislation that it has before it at the moment. Therefore, I propose that if we do not complete the four Bills that are before us today we should sit tomorrow morning in order to complete them and to avoid undue congestion next week and the week after. For the information of the House I might say it is proposed to sit on Wednesday, 14 December and Tuesday, 20 December. In regard to the motion, I suggest we do not follow the usual practice of breaking for it at 5 o'clock, but rather we let the legislation go on and if there is sufficient time to enable us to make a worthwhile start on the motion then we should do so today. This question of course, can be reviewed by the Whips as the day develops.

On the Order of Business it has been customary to make expressions of sympathy in regard to persons of note or in cases that affect us particularly. I would like the Seanad to note with horror and dismay the death of the Assembly man, Edgar Graham, who was murdered outside Queen's University, Belfast, this morning. It has been said by a noted writer that in the death of every man each of us dies a little. I think this is horribly true for us here in Ireland today that for every one of these victims of violence not only do we die a little but our hopes for our country die a little with every one of these outrages. It is pointless to talk at length, words cannot reflect one's feelings but I did think it was well that it should be referred to briefly in this House.

Mr. Lanigan

I should like to join the Leader of the House in his expressions of abhorrence at the wilful murder that took place this morning. I think that in doing so we should also say that we do not condone any of the violence occurring North or South of the Border in recent months and indeed for the past number of years. The name of Ireland is being blackened no matter where we go because of the senseless murders which take place right throughout this island which, in some instances, are being done in the name of nationalism, and there is no doubt that they are not furthering the nationalist case. In some cases they are said to be done in the name of republicanism, in other cases to be done in a Unionist sense. Anybody who knows the origin of the word republican would realise that nobody would commit murder in that cause. There is no point in making a long speech. I join with the Leader of the House in his expression of sympathy.

Mr. Robb

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. I should like to join in the expressions of sympathy from the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition. It has been a particularly sad and distressing time, this last hour, because I have debated with Edgar Graham and although I would be opposed to the point of view that he held, I respected him as a fearless man who always said what he believed. He never left anybody in any doubt about where he stood on any question and he stood before his opponents with great courage. Recently someone tried in a snide way to tell me that he was a lightweight — they have their answer today. Senators may have seen a little programme which was done on our group last August, some of them were generous enough to participate in it. Edgar Graham, from the Unionist tradition, was also generous enough to participate in it. I remember him well last year facing a very hostile audience in Queen's University, Belfast. The union was packed and Mr. John Hume, myself and the late Edgar Graham had been asked to address the audience. I realised that night that this very young man, highly intelligent, with such a boyish face, was able to take criticism as easily as he gave it. If men such as Edgar Graham are to be designated legitimate targets, there is no one in this House who is not also a legitimate target and I think that the people of Ireland should all ask themselves individually to what extent each one of us has contributed to the murder of Edgar Graham by not becoming involved in the tragedy that is Northern Ireland today.

The murder of a representative is surely the ultimate expression of contempt for a tradition and I submit that there is no tradition in Ireland that is deserving of this sort of contempt. Assassination is the ultimate sign of decadence and it brings together the three points that Eric Fromm talked about a generation ago, necrophilia, the love of death, narcissism, a belief in the purity of your own cause to the exclusion of all others and incestuous fixation, ancestor worship or the worship of soil and blood. If we look at ourselves in Ireland today we can see that we have plenty of those three things. The only real tribute to Edgar Graham is whether we can turn around with a change of heart and a re-birth of the human spirit to promote growth and life where at present there is so much decadence, despair and hatred. I send to his wife and family my sincerest sympathy and I am sure I speak for all in this historic Chamber.

Mrs. McGuinness

There is little I can add to what Senator Robb has said but I would like to join with him, the Leader of the House and Senator Lanigan in deploring this new horror and expressing sympathy with the wife and family of the dead man. Once we get into the business of saying that someone is or is not a legitimate target that seems to be the beginning of the end as far as brotherhood, reconciliation and genuine peace in this country is concerned. Once you start discarding the Commandment "Thou shalt not kill" there is no end to the horrors that can be perpetrated. In recent weeks we have seen a new escalation of what can be done. Like Senator Robb, I am particularly moved by this event because these are my people too.

I know that Senators are with me in expressing sympathy to those who have been bereaved in this tragedy. When we say such-and-such is justifiable or so-and-so is a legitimate target, are we not contributing to the continuation of what has become a war? Once we say that people on one side are legitimate targets then we open the doors to the other side to say that their opponents are also legitimate targets and there is an escalation of violence as has happened in the past week. I hope that this will perhaps make people feel more strongly about what they can do positively to try to stop this slaughter and in such a way contribute towards the promotion of a peaceful solution, but I fear that things have reached the stage when it is very difficult to see anything of the sort happening.

Mr. Ferris

On behalf of the Labour Party I join with the Leader of the House in condemning this outrage which occurred today. I also extend to the late Edgar Graham's family our deepest sympathy. When we read daily of tit for tat killings and of people claiming credit almost for the disastrous deeds which are being done — as Senator Lanigan said — in the name of the Irish people, we must ask ourselves when this cancer will ever stop, especially in this season of good-will. What good-will has been shown when there is no respect for human life? These people do not even respect points of view expressed. It is a tragedy to be in this shocking situation just coming up to Christmas when people are being murdered for the sake of political beliefs or otherwise which none of us — even those who want to see Ireland united — shares. We do not want to see Ireland reunited at any cost if that is what is in the minds of these people. The cost of human life is a primary one and those of us on this side of the House do not condone this in any sense or form. It is with regret that it is the Leader's duty today to express this sympathy or that the reason for it should ever arise.

Mr. B. Ryan

I shall be very brief. Listening to Senator Robb something came to mind that Terence McSwiney said a long time ago: "It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can endure the most who will triumph". If any message should go out from this House today it is that, irrespective of what the brutal men who claim to act on our behalf do, those of us who disagree or have been angry about many things, have the capacity and the will to endure whatever these people throw at us and still endure. What we believe in, freedom and democracy and the rights of minorities to freedom and democracy, cannot be defeated by violence. We have a capacity, as civilised people, to endure whatever they throw at us and still say they are wrong. We will not be defeated because we can and will endure in spite of anything that brutal men can throw at us. I hope that all of us will reflect more and more deeply on whether it is ever justifiable, in any circumstances, to resort to warfare to do anything because I believe that human beings have the capacity to endure whatever brute force is used against them without being defeated. The message that a democratic institution like the Houses of the Oireachtas have to convey again and again is that violence will not triumph because we will endure whatever is thrown at us and we will not be brutalised by violence.

Mr. McGonagle

It is with a deep sense of shame that I stand to address the Seanad today on this brutal murder. It is no less brutal, it may be said, than all the other murders. Quite so, I agree. The people of Northern Ireland have suffered for 14 years. No one will ever be able to assess the degree and depth of their suffering and their anguish. Perhaps the numbers of people committing suicide or those committed to mental institutions give some indication. What is it doing to children in the name of God? These people are not acting in my name or — I would like to think that Senators agree with me — in the name of the Irish people. Democracy is on trial. There is destabilisation in Northern Ireland. It is plain to be seen but efforts are being made to destabilise the situation in the Republic of Ireland and that is not so plain to be seen. Mr. Owen Carron said in Manchester that that was his objective. I must take it then he was speaking for Sinn Féin, for the extremists or whatever. If even a degree of destabilisation comes to the Republic, democracy is really in trouble because I never stop to praise the democratic concept in the Republic of Ireland and point with pride to it to the people of the North in my efforts to try to get reconciliation and conciliation. I have not always failed nor have the Protestant people turned a deaf ear to me because probably I was anti-sectarian, not so much non-sectarian; in a quiet, neutral, indifferent kind of way, I was a militant, active anti-sectarian. Perhaps that is why I was accepted in the North and was never knocked for my views which I stated publicly. They all knew where I stood, for unification of the people of Ireland, not six or 26 green fields but for the people of Ireland, a different proposition. It is difficult to try to convince the great bulk of the Protestant people that they can live with us in sympathy and in harmony.

Will anyone dare tell me that by shooting Edgar Graham or anybody else they will unite the people of Ireland? That kind of shooting is counter-productive, so you get tit for tat. But I am scorching with flame the people who dare to represent that what they are doing in their murderous violence is uniting the people of Ireland. That is not the way to unite people and I am talking about the unification of the Protestant people in the North with the rest of us in Ireland and I feel very, very badly today. I have already spoken with Senator Robb with shame in my heart and a very uneasy mind. This is not the way and we will have to try to get it stopped. Perhaps speeches like we are making today might make a contribution to that end. I do not know. I am not too sure what the motivation is among these people. I am not sure what their ideology is. People tell me they want a socialist republic. I am a socialist. These people are not socialists. They do not understand what the word means. No decent minded socialist, even a Marxist, would hardly be involved in what these people are doing. Ireland is divided on a sectarian basis by every action of these people. Partition is here for a long time to come because of their activities.

Mr. Lanigan

On the Order of Business, is it intended that item No. 6 will be taken before Christmas? This item has been on the Order Paper since the beginning of the session. In view of the urgency of debating what is happening in Europe at this stage it is the most urgent item that is hanging over the House at present. I should like the Leader of the House to give consideration to taking it before Christmas.

Professor Dooge

With regard to No. 6, I have been in touch over the past few days with the office of the Minister, as the Minister himself was taking part in the Athens Summit. I have asked the Minister to hold himself available for next Wednesday in case there is time to debate the EEC motion. I emphasise again that we should endeavour to deal with our legislation as some of it is urgent. I have been contemplating taking the motion before Christmas if at all possible. If we find ourselves pressed with legislation I will guarantee that the House could meet in the middle of Janaury to take it in Government time. With all Senator Lanigan's enthusiasm I am sure he would not want to sit on Christmas Eve to take this. I assure the House if there is not room for it before Christmas, we will take it in the second or third week of January.

Order of Business agreed to.