An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-12
============================================================

Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel

I welcome our visitors in the Gallery. Today I want to commemorate a significant anniversary in our nation's history. On this date 110 years ago the final two signatories of the Proclamation who had been sentenced to death were executed. They were James Connolly, founder of the Labour Party, my party, and an inspiration for many left-wing, inclusive ideas around the world, and Seán Mac Diarmada, who was a native of a small farmstead in Kiltyclogher in County Leitrim. These two men represent two very different faces of the struggle for Irish freedom and two different faces of our nation. Both were radical voices speaking up, one for the urban proletariat and the other for the agricultural worker. They spoke for tradition and for change.
Inclusion was and remains integral to the origins of the principle of the Irish Republic. Our flag is the ultimate symbol of tolerance and inclusion - the green and orange united in peace.
Today is International Nurses Day. There is no doubt that without migrant workers coming into our country, our health system and IT systems would collapse. I raise this issue because we have witnessed a lot of racial abuse online of the Labour Party candidate in the Galway West by-election, Helen Ogbu. It is shocking, and I want to call that out. We strive to overcome challenges in our society. We need to challenge this hatred and division. I recognise that particular today, on the anniversary of these two great men and International Nurses Day. Without migrant workers in our country, our economy would collapse.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:55+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-12