Thank you Clare [McGrath, OPW Commissioner and M.C.] and congratulations to you and your staff for the marvellous event you have put on here today. Senator Mansergh, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It gives me great pleasure to be here in Ballingarry parish this afternoon to mark the official opening of the Famine Warhouse 1848.

At the outset I would like to pay  particular tribute to my colleagues Minister Michael Smith and Senator Martin Mansergh who both championed the case for the State’s purchase of this site and as we know the State acquired this significant historical site in 1998 and thus commenced the process of commemoration which brings us here today.

Many threads of history also bring us together here today to pay homage to the spark that burned in July 1848, however briefly, in the utter darkness of our nation’s deepest despair. The Great Famine in so many ways marks the pivotal point of our history; may we never reach that nadir again. Few nations have lost up to a quarter of its population in the space of only four years. We stand here today to say ‘never again’. It is salutary to think that only recently have we finally stemmed the haemorrhage of our national diaspora. We remember those departed millions as well today.

1848 was a year of revolutions across Europe whether inspired by agricultural depression, natonalist fervour, republican idealism, or the rise of a new democratic voice across the continent. These varied motives gave rise to a blaze of uprisings that spread from France, to Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary and further afield. Though most of these revolutionary movements suffered a short existence their legacies survived and flourished over time to give us the many freedoms and privileges we enjoy as citizens of the new Europe.

The Young Ireland Rebellion of Ballingarry in July 1848 stands in esteemed European company. And the purpose of this exhibition is to ensure that the name of Ballingarry receives its due recognition.

The final thread weaved here today is that of the Young Irelanders who came from all four provinces: Charles Gavan Duffy and John Mitchel from Ulster, John Blake Dillon from Connaught, James Fintan Lalor from Leinster (a midlander and defender of agricultural interests like myself) and of course Thomas Davis, Thomas Francis Meagher and William Smith O’Brien from Munster. And in their different ways those men represent the interweave of democratic discourse and physical force that has been spun through our country’s history in the intervening 156 years.

The Young Ireland movement founded by Thomas Davis and his colleagues in The Nation newspaper culminated during the Great Famine and mass emigration of 1845-50. The Young Irelanders advocated national cultural identity and self-determination and echoing the United Irishmen, they stood for the unity of both traditons on this island in support of independence. After the tragically early death of Thomas Davis in 1845 their leader was William Smith O’Brien, one of the O’Briens of Thomond, who are represented here today by our distinguished guests, Murrough and Susanne O’Brien, Brian O’Brien, The O’Brien (Lord Inchiquin), Grania Weir and Deirdre Chapin.

William Smith O’Brien was an M.P. and a powerful critic in the House of Commons of the British Government’s lack of an adequate famine policy. As a Member of Parliament he was the only elected representative to lead an Irish rebellion in the modern period before the War of Independence. In some ways the politician’s job has become easier since then (though I doubt he had to hold constituency clinics in his day).

Without the Famine, O’Brien might not have entered into rebellion. O’Brien was an idealist who wished to unite landlord and tenant and to lead a bloodless revolution against the State. Even so after the failure of the Rising, the media of the day (some things never change) ridiculed the failure of O’Brien. In acknowledging O’Brien’s rebellion in the context of the Famine which inspired it, we give it its proper dignity. O’Brien’s was a moral gesture, an almost bloodless protest against the unequal treatment of Ireland under the Union.

I was delighted to open OPW’s newest Visitor Centre on Scattery Island last week. My Office now rightly acknowledges the important place that Ballingarry has in our past. As one of the OPW’s newer Centres it is notable that this is not only a new interpretative centre but the actual historic building and location of Rebellion during the Famine. It is also the first Centre in OPW’s portfolio of national heritage visitor centres that formally remembers the period of the Great Famine. It is now appropriate that the scope of our interpretative centres and commemorative sites cover our nation’s story on a fully inclusive and reflective basis. That alone makes this location important.

On this spot in 1998, the Taoiseach said: ‘the rebellion that broke out here was a protest at the appalling degradation of the Famine, which was decimating a population of 8 million people in 1845 through starvation and emigration against a background of much official neglect and indifference, and where the goodwill that existed was simply not enough’.

The Taoiseach requested the Office of Public Works to purchase this site in 1998 and to place here a permanent State exhibition commemorating the events of the period. The works under architect, Michele O’Dea, comprised of the restoration of the two-storey nineteenth century stone farmhouse, for use as an exhibition centre. Works also included the provision of car parking facilities and the creation of constructed wetlands. Some of the outbuildings were adapted to house toilets, a switch room and store. A new stone wall, piers and timber gate have been built enclosing the area immediately to the front of the main house. This stone wall replicates the wall in the contemporary drawings of the Rising and in later photographs.

You can be sure that this Centre has been fully incorporated into OPW’s portfolio of heritage attractions and will receive all the publicity and support at my Office’s disposal both in the immediate region and nationally. I know that Slieveardagh Rural Development, Ballingarry Community Council and the people of The Commons, will be anxious to explore ways of exploiting the rural tourism that this new national heritage site will generate. This site is a long term investment by the State and one anticipates that in coming years it will be possible to do more here.

Speech by Dr Thomas McGrath

Speech by Senator Martin Mansergh

Speech by The O’Brien (Lord Inchiquin)