Unveiling of Hall of Honour Memorial Stone - Trinity College Dublin, Saturday 26th September 2015

Hall of Honour Memorial Stone

On Saturday I had the pleasure and honour of attending and being inivited to give speak at the unveiling of the Hall of Honour Memeorial Stone. It was a momentous occasion and a very moving tribute to all the many men and one woman from the Trinity College community that died in the First World War. Here's a short YouTube clipping from my speech. 

Speech at Unveiling of Hall of Honour Memorial Stone - Trinity College Dublin, Saturday 26th September 2015

Distinguished Guests, Visitors, Friends and Colleagues,

I would like to thank the Provost and College Secretary for the kind invitation to deliver an address here today on this historic occasion and in this historic setting.

As a former student, a former Students Union president, a graduate and current staff member of this University, as well as a member of Seanad Eireann, I am delighted and honoured to participate in this highly appropriate and timely initiative. It is a privilege to be here for the official unveiling of the Memorial Stone to honour the students, staff and alumni of Trinity College Dublin who lost their lives in World War I.

It is very fitting that we would incorporate this Memorial Stone into the 1928 Hall of Honour – the Hall which I used to pass by so frequently with my fellow students on our way into the 1937 Reading Room to consult dusty law texts way back in the 1980s.

Listening to the pen profiles of some of the many students, staff and alumni of Trinity killed in the war, as they were read so eloquently just now by the Presidents of the Students’ Union and Graduate Students’ Union, I am particularly moved to hear the personal and human stories behind the names.

It is particularly poignant for me to hear the name Ernest Julian and to listen to his story – he was an academic lawyer and like me held the Reid professorship of Law, before dying at Gallipoli as you have heard.

Today, as we bear witness to the lives and tragic deaths of Ernest Julian and the other men whose profiles we have heard, we remember not only them; but also the many thousands of other Irish men and women who fought and lost their lives during the First World War. It is also fitting that we would remember too those whose lives were lost during the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War.

I believe that there is immense strength in listening to individual stories like the pen profiles we have heard, as an appropriate way of commemorating these events. It is hugely important that this period, the period of commemorations, this Decade of Centenary Commemorations, upon which we are embarked as a nation, be marked in a way that is inclusive, respectful and appropriate. It is also important, of course, that we do not celebrate wars that led to hideous human suffering and waste of human lives, but that we mark them in an appropriate manner.

There have been many reports in the newspapers and many academic and historical accounts recently of families with terribly poignant stories of loss in the First World War - for example, the loss of multiple sons and brothers in individual families – like the Duggan brothers whose stories we just heard.

All of us have our individual stories, and many families, including mine, were split between those who fought for the British Army in the First World War and those who stayed in Ireland and fought for independence.

So I think we are all aware of the sensitivities and contradictions surrounding this commemoration period. Indeed, we should be aware here in Trinity of the irony that the 1937 Reading Room attached to the Hall of Honour was opened by a veteran of the 1916 Rising who had himself fought against British soldiers, namely Eamon de Valera.

The five intersecting themes that have been outlined by the Minister for Arts in launching the official plans for the Decade of Commemorations try to take account of these sensitivities and contradictions. They are: Remember, Reconcile, Imagine, Present and Celebrate.

These themes try to ensure that we are commemorating in an inclusive manner and that we are bringing together past, present and future in the events in the decade of commemoration. There is a need to embrace differences and different histories to find a new way of sharing and respecting differences as we move into this 21st century.

This Hall of Honour Memorial Stone can be seen as just one part of our commemoration process. It is indeed a centrepiece event to explore the complexities of Ireland’s involvement in the Great War in line with the agenda for the official Decade of Centenary commemorations – but it is particularly significant as it is a permanent monument to the lives so tragically lost so many years ago.

I think it is very important that permanent monuments like these are planned, to outlast the events that will be taking place over the next year or so – and that much permanent work will be done as part of the commemorations project, including work of refurbishment and regeneration. Specific projects are planned including work on the tenements of Henrietta Street, the Kevin Barry Room in the National Concert Hall and Padraig Pearse's Cottage.

These are important spaces to be renovated and refurbished – as is Kilmainham Gaol, a very important place to visit. I always tell my Criminology students to go there because it instructs them about Ireland's past, not just the political past but also the way in which we treated people who were imprisoned on criminal charges historically. It is a remarkable place. I challenge anyone to feel unmoved when you go into one of the cells there and hear the door clanging shut behind you.

In considering the theme of commemorations during this decade of centenaries, I wish to make three final points about how we remember.

First, I think we need to ensure that our commemorations of wars and military events, particularly next year’s events to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising, are inclusive of many strands – that they are not over-militaristic. I was very struck when I watched the parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the Rising in 2006, which was the last time there was a full military parade. It was quite disturbing to watch - we were commemorating the Rising in a way that seemed almost to celebrate weaponry, artillery and military endeavour to the exclusion of the human stories. It made me very uncomfortable at the time.

I think we have learnt over the last decade to be more inclusive. The great work done by another former TCDSU president, Joe Duffy, in highlighting the deaths of the 40 children aged 2-16 who were killed during the Rising is one example.

Another example was the impressive ‘Road to the Rising’ festival on O’Connell street held over the Easter weekend this year, organised by RTE and Dublin City Council, which covered the social, cultural and political events of 1915 and which attracted massive numbers of people onto the main street of our capital city to learn about the lives of ordinary Dubliners 100 years ago – what they wore, what they ate, how they played. There were barely any guns in evidence, yet a powerful sense of how history was made.

So I think it’s very important that in marking the 100th anniversary of the Rising next year, we would include in the official events commemorations of for example, the role of women and the role of marginalised communities. We should not commemorate the republican leaders without remembering that a hugely important social uprising was taking place as well with the rise of the workers’ movement, the movement for organised labour which was so important at the time- and we should make sure to commemorate the suffragette movement and those remarkable women, like Louie Bennett and Dr Kathleen Lynn, whose stories have only recently been recovered and re-told.

Secondly, I believe that we must be careful about the use of religious services in commemorative events. At the inauguration of President Michael D. Higgins in 2011, for the first time at any presidential inauguration there was a humanist celebrant on the stage for the ceremony, alongside leaders from a number of religions. Let us ensure that humanists, atheists and people of minority religions feel included when we use religion as part of commemorative events.

The third point is about women's involvement. I and other colleagues in the Seanad have called upon local authorities to commemorate the women involved in Cumann na mBan and the events around 1916, and to use women's names when naming public places - many overlooked for decades. The Rosie Hackett Bridge was named by Dublin City Council as part of a campaign initiated by trade unions and women’s groups. It marked a real shift in approach and I hope we see more of it.

In conclusion, I think that the organisers of any commemoration event during this period must ensure that it is not too top-down, that it engages people from all over the island of Ireland, of all ages and classes. It has been said that we Irish have a particular vice – of replacing history with commemoration, of replacing complexities of multiple historical experiences with empty and artificial ceremonies of commemoration. I think we must be aware of this danger. Rather than simply referring to names and numbers when marking the anniversaries of wars, for example, we must be sure to use contemporaneous accounts to try to get as close as possible to the living stream of events – to tell the stories of those who died in war, to mark their humanity as well as their heroism.

I believe that in using pen portraits of those Trinity students, graduates and staff whose lives were cut so tragically short by the Great War, we are ensuring that history and commemoration are intertwined; that in our ceremony today we are remembering the dead in a respectful and inclusive way, marking not just their heroism but also their humanity.

Thank you.