As I can see that there is a desire that the House should not sit to-morrow, I do not want to delay the proceedings unduly, but I should like to point out that the matters which I am raising and which have a cultural and industrial value, are at least equally as important as the matter of shooting cattle. The allocation of time for the discussion of the various matters brought forward should, in my opinion, be based on some system which would give us an opportunity of dealing adequately with the matters which we wish to bring to the notice of the House. I am raising the matter of the Manuscripts Commission. I should like to point out that my information is that the number of manuscripts available and being dealt with is so colossal that it will take the present staff something like 25 years to deal adequately with them. These manuscripts are of the greatest historical importance. A careful investigation and a careful annotation of all the data are necessary, and in view of the amount of work involved I think the amount which has been voted to the Manuscripts Commission this year is rather small. I am raising this point now in the hope that the Minister might be enabled to increase that amount in some fashion on this Bill. I am also trying to get, as it were, some focalised direction on this whole matter of manuscript collection and annotation. There are documents in solicitors' offices and in other places in this country which should be available. These are of great historical importance and I understand they are not being collected at the moment. I am told that some short time ago in the premises of a wastepaper merchant in this country a big number of documents was discovered which on examination proved to be of great historical importance. I am focussing attention on this matter only because of the fact that, due probably to an oversight or probably due to a lack of the sense of values that would be necessary to evaluate properly the importance of manuscripts in our national life, sufficient attention is not being devoted to this question.
Another matter calling for attention is the manner in which our public records are housed, and I think in this connection the time has arrived to establish a national archive of some kind. At the present moment if one desired to investigate papers of national importance, one has to visit seven or eight different places—the Public Records Office, the National Library, the Birmingham Tower, the Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College and various places of that kind. There appears to be no general direction in the collection of the data essential for the preservation of historical records in this country. They may not be of the same practical value as the mere killing of cattle but they are in the long run of great importance to the nation. The work of the Manuscripts Commission and the manner in which these valuable papers should be housed is a question of great importance.
If I may, I should also like to raise the question of the local historical society which seems to be nobody's child at the moment. These societies in the countryside are working under great difficulties annotating or collecting work which will be of great national benefit in the years to come. They are the historians of to-day and of yesterday and any help that the Government could give them to develop and extend that cultural work should be given wholeheartedly. With the efflux of time, local place names are passing away and people possessed of a peculiar knowledge are dying out. I doubt if a sufficient effort is being made to assist the local historical societies in the collection and preservation of essential material. If there was a commission somewhat on the lines of the Folklore Commission to direct it, it would be of great assistance, and it would give at least some recognition to the work of the local historian. These are aspects of our public life that are not usually referred to in either of the Houses of the Oireachtas, but, to my mind, they are of as great importance as any other aspect, and anything we can do to develop and extend the cultural qualities of this country is deserving of all our support.
Throughout the country, too, there are national monument committees. Some of these committees, I understand, are active, but, in other counties, they have for one reason or another died away. Such committees could do a good deal of useful work in investigating local conditions and preparing local histories. They could look after the local monuments and keep them in good repair. I am told on relatively good authority that in this country to-day many of our cairns and monuments carrying Ogham inscriptions which are of historical value, are now being weather-beaten because they are not getting the care they deserve as national monuments. I want to raise that point only because we are inclined to be careless in this matter of our national monuments. I can only instance the case with which many of the Senators here are familiar, the condition of countryside graveyards where tombstones carrying inscriptions of great genealogical value are knocked down and trampled upon, and, in the course of years, are grown over and matters which would be of historical importance are lost. Much additional knowledge would be available for historians through the preservation of these tombstones and monuments in our graveyards, but because, either through oversight or carelessness on the part of our people, they are not getting the care and attention they deserve.
These three matters are related, the collection of manuscripts by the Manuscripts Commission; the collection and annotation and housing of the manuscripts, the preservation by historical societies of local history and of our national monuments. I do not think it is necessary for me to enlarge on the necessity for doing anything that can be done for their preservation, and I am sure that the Minister will do all that lies in his power towards their development and preservation.
The establishment of a civil list is the last question I want to refer to. I know that other Parties have approached members of the Government on it, and I do not think it needs any eloquence of mine or any great arguments to point out the necessity there is for it. There are very few countries in the world to-day that do not attempt in some way or another to show appreciation and to give recognition to their brilliant sons and daughters who have fallen on difficult times. There is hardly any country, as I see it, which has not some form of civil list in order to provide their distinguished sons and daughters with a way to live.
In this country there are old men who have fought the national fight in olden days and have fallen on evil times. They have been left to the care of the general public. They have a claim upon us and upon this nation. Those who gave of their best should not have to depend on the generosity of foreign countries to provide them with the wherewithal of existence in their old age. Some years ago, you had the case of one of the greatest poets this country has produced, one of our finest story-tellers, having to accept a pension from the British Government. That should not be. That man gave good service to this country as a good Irishman, as a man who has added to our culture and literary eminence in the world, and yet we have no method here whereby we can show appreciation or recognition of his work.
We had the case of a poetess who died in poor circumstances a few months ago, a woman who has given us a grand balladry and love of Ireland. That woman died under distressing circumstances when she should have been one of those people benefiting under a properly established civil list. We have men living in public institutions who fought for the rights of our country before many of us were born, men who are now living on public assistance, men who on their rights alone are entitled to recognition from the people for what they did in days that are gone.
It would not entail tremendous expenditure by the State to sustain a civil list. I am not pleading for it alone because of the morality and righteousness of it, but because of the fact that we have been so peculiarly unconscious of the fact that people who have given us, out of their minds, literature, and out of their work an added strength to the culture of this country, are in their old age neglected. It is because of that I appeal for the establishment of a civil list, and I need not stress the matter in this House.
