asked the Taoiseach if his attention has been drawn to a proposal to establish a specialist museum and gallery dedicated to the memory of Jack B. Yeats; if he will support such a proposal; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Jack B. Yeats Commemoration.
6.
I have received no such proposal. Yeats is well represented in our National Gallery and in the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery. Substantial public moneys have been allocated for the refurbishing of these galleries and whether perhaps some rearrangement among the collections by the institutions concerned could be made to create such a focus can be considered.
I understand that the Taoiseach has been extremely busy during the last few weeks but I also understand that a formal proposal from an eminent Irish artist has been sent in writing to the Taoiseach's Department. Will the Taoiseach investigate the situation and be in a position to respond? Perhaps given the exigencies of time the Taoiseach's reply today is not as up to date as it might be.
I am aware that a suggestion was put but it has not come to me. I am sure the Deputy is well aware that Yeats himself to a large extent settled this question for us when he said "You that would judge me do not judge alone this book or that; come to this hallowed place where my friends' portraits hang and look thereon".
I am delighted that the Taoiseach has been supplied with the quotation. It is a tragedy that he did not get a copy of the letter.
A question Deputy.
On a point of order, I do not have to be supplied with any quotations of Yeats.
(Interruptions.)
Questions please, questions.
It is a pity that the Taoiseach's alacrity does not extend to the formal proposal that has been made. The question is down on the Order Paper for the second time as no doubt the Taoiseach's Department can tell him. I am simply asking the Taoiseach, since Jack B. Yeats was perhaps the best modern painter this country had in this century and since the Taoiseach's Department have responsibility for culture, if he is prepared to consider the proposal and——
The Deputy has made his point.
The point is that——
Indeed he has repeated it on occasions.
——the Taoiseach in his reply said that no such proposal had been sent to him and that is not the case. I will put down the question again and perhaps we will have another opportunity to get a coherent response.
The Deputy must not have listened to what I said by way of reply. I said that a rearrangement among the collections by the institutions concerned could be made to create such a focus and that that could be considered, and it can be considered.
A Cheann Comhairle——
Please Deputy Quinn, I have given the Deputy much latitude. I propose now to proceed to Question No. 7.
I asked one supplementary question in relation to this matter. It is not my fault that I have a number of questions on the Order Paper. Is the Taoiseach's Department not aware that a close relative of Jack B. Yeats has indicated to the State that if a separate specialist museum dedicated to the memory of Jack B. Yeats was made available, all of the personal papers which have nothing to do with the works of art currently in possession of either the Municipal or the National Galleries would be made available and that together they would constitute quite an extraordinary asset. It is either here or to Minnesota that these papers might go.