Senator Ronan Mullen
I didn’t know what subjects to study when I started at UCG in 1988. I tried out different classes in first year and settled on English and French for the degree. I had a nagging regret through in my second year that I hadn’t taken Gaeilge.
But there were other ways to improve at Irish, including attending some of the regular degree classes, which I did. A particularly interesting lecturer was An Dr Micheál Mac Craith OFM who later became Professor — Ollamh le Nua-Ghaeilge — in the Irish Department. Fr Micheál and I have remained friendly over the years.
The image accompanying this piece is from The Flight into Egypt, reproduced here by kind permission of Fr Micheál who is now the Guardian of St Isidore’s College in Rome where I visited last year and where the painting is located.
The Flight into Egypt was one of three paintings executed by Carlo Maratti (1625-1713) at St Isidore’s. St Joseph and Our Lady are depicted holding hands, a feature unusual in the art of the time. The Blessed Virgin’s sandals are surprisingly unsuitable however for a flight by road to a foreign land. The reason for this may be commercial, Fr Micheál told me during a very informative tour.
The straps on Mary’s left sandal come together in the form of a letter ‘A’. Could this refer to the name of the shoemaker? It’s an early example of product placement, if so! This year will mark the 400th Anniversary of the Irish Franciscan presence at the St Isidore’s.
Originally a convent established by Spanish Franciscans, it was dedicated to the farmer St Isidore who was canonised in 1622 and later became the patron saint of Madrid. But the Spanish Franciscans left after running into financial difficulties with the building.
The Irish Franciscan, Luke Wadding, undertook to complete it on condition that he could turn it into a project for training young Irish Franciscans. St Isidore’s became a centre of learning and a reference point in Europe for Irish language, culture and identity during the dark days of the penal laws at home. (The College also became the leading European centre for the study of the theology of Blessed Dun Scotus, which underpinned the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception later declared by the Church.)
Better laws are possible in 2025
Respect for human dignity is why I am in politics. I was early out of the blocks to oppose the Government’s attempt to dilute respect for ‘mothers’ in the Irish Constitution and to equate ‘marriage’ with ‘other durable relationships’.
This Bill had passed through the Dáil with the minimum of scrutiny. Not so in the Seanad, where a small few pushed back successfully against this destructive ideology. Voters backed our concerns overwhelmingly at the ballot box.
On the Oireachtas ‘Assisted Dying’ Committee, I led a minority report and recommendations with a simple message: Care, not killing, is the response of a compassionate society to those who fear suffering or being a burden. I favour a strong social safety net but not a culture of dependency.
I have become more sceptical of the State’s willingness to protect the common good. Our laws now endanger human life at its earliest stages. New surrogacy legislation commodifies children and exploits impoverished women in Eastern Europe and elsewhere.
The Tánaiste campaigned on a promise to decriminalise harmful drugs. Little is being done, it seems, to protect young people from a range of social threats. Better laws are possible. In the Seanad, my Bill to create strict age verification requirements for purveyors of online pornography passed its Second Stage without opposition.
I hope it can be enacted in the near future. A decade ago, my office established the Oireachtas Human Dignity Awards to recognise people who have been exemplary in serving others and to fundraise for related charities.
This work continues. In 2022 we set up, with enthusiastic support from An Ceann Comhairle, the Oireachtas Essay Competition/Aiste an Oireachtas. This Competition encourages senior cycle students, our future leaders, to reflect on democracy and on their own place in civic life. Because politics matters.
Don’t let the Government steal your vote!
I blame the Government! They left it until the last minute to legislate for the new ‘Higher Education’ constituency that replaces the NUI and Trinity Panels in Seanad Éireann from next April.
As a result there are two important deadlines coming up for graduate voters:
1. January 29 will be the closing date for returning ballots to the NUI in this election. (The same deadline applies for TCD graduates and their panel.)
2. But very confusingly, there is an even earlier deadline, January 23, for graduates to ensure they are registered for the new Seanad ‘Higher Education’ constituency. Even if you are getting your ballot paper this time, it’s log on by January 23 or lose your vote! The place to re-register is www.seanadvoter.ie.
You can do this re-registration now. If you are a currently registered NUI or TCD graduate, you have been sent an ID number by post which makes the process a bit quicker. The important thing is, if you don’t go to www.seanadvoter.ie before January 23, you will be excluded from the new Register. (You can rejoin the Register in a later year but the process will be more complicated.)
Can you please help any family or friends who may have difficulty going online and uploading their number? NUI will post a form to people on request, but the January 23 deadline stands. New and previous degree graduates of other institutions of Higher Education in the State can register for the first time. Same website: www.seanadvoter.ie. Please spread the word to degree holders from the University of Limerick, DCU, Institutes of Technology, Technological Universities etc.
Of course, I’d be grateful for your No 1 vote, or highest possible preference, if you are casting a ballot on that NUI panel!