Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Friday, 10 Aug 1934

Vol. 53 No. 20

Supplementary Estimates. - In Committee on Finance. Vote 11—Public Works and Buildings.

Minister for Finance (Mr. MacEntee)

I move:—

Go ndeontar suim Bhreise ná raghaidh thar £1,000 chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1935, chun caiteachais i dtaobh Foirgintí Puiblí; chun coinneáil-suas Pairceanna agus Oibreacha Puiblí áirithe agus chun déanamh agus coinneáil-suas Oibreacha Dréineála.

That a Supplementary sum not exceeding £1,000 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1935, for expenditure in respect of Public Buildings; for the maintenance of certain Parks and Public Works; and for the execution and maintenance of Drainage Works.

This Supplementary Estimate is presented in order to provide funds for the Memorial which, in accordance with the decision of the Executive Council, is to be erected in the interior of the General Post Office, Dublin, to those who fell during Easter Week, 1916. The Memorial is to consist of an exact replica in bronze of the model entitled "The Death of Cuchullain," executed by Mr. Oliver Sheppard, together with a pedestal and screen containing a suitable inscription. The position provisionally selected for the memorial is between the two columns in the public office of the General Post Office, Dublin. The sculptor is to arrange to have the casting in bronze made by a Brussels foundry of reputation and long experience of this class of work. He will have the model properly packed for transit and make arrangements to pay for the transit of the model to the foundry and of the finished statue from the foundry to Dublin. He has undertaken not to make, or cause or permit to be made any other replica of the model in any material whatsoever. He is to be paid the sum of £725 for the completed replica in bronze. The Board of Works will arrange for the erection of the pedestal and screen and, of course, will consult with the sculptor with regard to material and design. The total cost of the replica, pedestal and screen will be about £1,000 and, accordingly, that amount is asked for in this Estimate.

Mr. Cosgrave

It is rather unfortunate that, at the close of the business of the session, a proposal such as this should come before the Dáil. There were other places in connection with 1916 than the Post Office. I do not know that the time is actually ripe for the erection of a single monument of memorial to the exclusion of others.

Mr. MacEntee

This Memorial does not exclude others.

Mr. Cosgrave

I know it does not but if we are to have a multiplicity of them it will, in my opinion, diminish their significance. This is not a matter which should be introduced in this form merely as an item of expenditure. It is a matter on which the public mind ought to be informed much more than it is at the moment. Personally, I think that it is unfortunate that the Executive Council has decided to have separate memorials instead of a single memorial. The matter has been decided, a contract has been entered into, and an artist has been selected. The House is not in a position to criticise a matter of this sort when presented with a fait accompli. I think it shows very poor judgment, lack of appreciation of the circumstances of the period and a misunderstanding of the public mind to have this matter dealt with in this way. Is the idea to have a series of these memorials in various places? I do not think that that was a good decision at which to arrive. I do not even know that that decision has been arrived at.

The Minister says that this proposal does not preclude the erection of other memorials but that is another question. When there are divisions—and bitter divisions— amongst the people is not the time to initiate a proposal of this sort. It is certainly treating the House with scant courtesy, and the people with no consideration at all, to produce at the end of a session and practically without a moment's notice a fait accompli in connection with this matter. I do not know whether or not the Executive Council when it considered this proposal had in mind any of the big issues. I could not express, as strongly as I feel, my disappointment and my condemnation of this method of dealing with a matter of this sort and treating the House in this fashion.

Mr. MacEntee

I can only believe that Deputy Cosgrave's speech has been made under a complete misapprehension. It may be due possibly to the fact that I failed to state, in the first instance, that this was by no means a national monument to the men of 1916: that while it was true that there were other places besides the General Post Office associated with 1916, nevertheless, as even Deputy Cosgrave will admit, the General Post Office has a special significance in relation to that period. It was the headquarters of the Irish Volunteers and of the Provisional Government of the Republic. It was there that Patrick Pearse, James Connolly, Tom Clarke, Joe Plunkett, Seán MacDermott, and most of the other signatories, with two exceptions, to the Proclamation of 1916 were. It was, as I have already said, the headquarters of the Irish Volunteers and of those associated with the Proclamation of the Republic. It happens to be the only public building that was intimately associated with 1916. That building is still in the hands of the Government and the proposal is to erect this monument merely to commemorate the fact that in 1916 the headquarters of the Provisional Government of the Second Irish Republic was situated in the Post Office. It happens to be a Government building. The expenditure must be paid out of public funds.

We have received assurances and declarations from people who are competent to judge that the statue which it is proposed to erect there is well worthy of the position which it is proposed to occupy and that it is a work of outstanding artistic merit. It is intended to be merely a feature of the building and not, as I have already said, in any sense a national monument to commemorate 1916 in general. I think it is fitting that something should be erected in the Post Office to mark its special relationship to the events of 1916. All that we are asking the House to do is to provide us with the funds to enable that to be done.

Deputy Cosgrave referred to the fact that this was not possibly a happy period in which to erect such a monument. I do not think that there is anywhere in the country any bitterness about the events of 1916. I think that everyone, no matter what shade of politics he belongs to, no matter what Party he supports, can join in appreciation of the sacrifices and of the heroism of those men. There are other monuments erected in the city, erected with the consent of our predecessors, about which a great deal of public controversy might have arisen. The House was not consulted when those arrangements were made, and although there was the expenditure of public money in connection with them we did not complain. We did not say that the country and the House were being treated in a scandalous manner as Deputy Cosgrave has insinuated here. I can only repeat what I said at the outset: that the Deputy's speech has been made under a complete misapprehension and is possibly due to the circumstance that I did not state specifically in the first instance that we do not intend this to be a national memorial. I can only hope that when the time comes, when happier days come, when we can all join and combine—and I think that day is not as far distant as Deputy Cosgrave would appear to believe— we will be able to erect a fitting public monument to commemorate, not merely the events of 1916, but the events of 1916-1921.

Mr. Cosgrave

The very introduction of this matter by the Minister simply proves everything that I have said. If it were all that he has said, why could he not have stated it to the House? Why could he not have prepared a statement in connection with it? All we had was a short statement lasting for five minutes at the end of a session without previous information. Does the Minister think that he is going to collect there on the day of the unveiling of this memorial the various people who were in that rising? I can assure him that he will not.

Mr. MacEntee

Why?

Mr. Cosgrave

And the Minister knows it.

Mr. Donnelly

Why not?

Mr. Cosgrave

I am not going to answer that question. I am not going to deal with those silly, childish interruptions. This is just in keeping with the whole setting of this particular proposal. There is a Party and there is a Party view. "Those fellows are out of office now. Let us show some form to the public in connection with this. This is ours, and so on." Did not this warrant a more careful statement from the Minister in introducing it? Is it a fit and proper proposal to erect half-a-dozen of these memorials over the country?

Mr. MacEntee

That is not the proposal.

Mr. Cosgrave

You are not even confined to the City of Dublin. There are other places outside the City of Dublin. Is this a matter which falls to the consideration entirely of the Executive Council, to the exclusion of everybody else? We are presented now with a fait accompli, about the artist and so on. Everybody knows about the artist, but who has seen the memorial? The Executive Council?

Mr. MacEntee

Art lovers in Dublin have seen it for many years. It is a well-known piece of work.

Mr. Cosgrave

The Executive Council came to this decision to the exclusion of the consideration of everybody else. We are presented with this at the end of a session when the Dáil is going to adjourn for three months. Are not the views that have fallen from the members of that Party in keeping with the interjections and interruptions which accompanied the presentation of this Estimate to the House? We know it. It is unfortunate. This is an unhappy introduction of an Estimate. It is not dealing with that particular period in a way in which persons with a true conception of Irish Nationalism would deal with it, and I deprecate the introduction of it, at practically the eleventh hour of an expiring session of the Dáil.

Vote put and agreed to.