Comments on: The Seanad Éireann

By: Eamonn

Eamonn — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:18:10 +0000

In point of fact, NUI MPs never sat in the Commons. They attended the Mansion House for the first Dáil instead.

By: Fr PF

Fr PF — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:29:30 +0000

Ronan Mullen, although elected to the Senate last year for the NUI constituency, is as good a representative of the Catholic Church as you will find in politics today.

By: Andrew Cusack

Andrew Cusack — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:10:55 +0000

The “Senate of Southern Ireland” — which I think only ever met once or twice — included two representatives each from the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland.

It would also be nice if the Irish peers could elect a senator (or two or three) from amongst their ranks.

By: RW

RW — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:24:21 +0000

Superb post. One comment: the Irish Upper House is somewhat plagued by career politicians, albeit former members of the Lower House who have proved unable to secure re-election and fall back on the nomination of the Taoiseach for the Seanad. Were it comprised merely of distinguished personages – and there are a few – it would indeed merit the kind comments you accord it. One improvement that could be made without violence to its corporatism would be to allocate the Christian denomations some seats, which would incidentally leaven the mix of secularists, who predominate in disproportionate number to their following in the country. When you are next in Dublin I trust you will make contact and I will show you the chamber personally.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:15:48 +0000

Interestingly, not only can graduates vote in the DU constituency election: Trinity College undergraduates elected to scholarship are also entitled to vote.

By: Gregor

Gregor — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:14:37 +0000

Intellectuals are always beating up on the senate, variously claiming that it should be made larger, made smaller, have its power cut, have its power increased, be directly elected, be abolished, or any variety of the above you might fancy.

So in short, it’s the same sad story as with the Bavarian Senate. Of course, in Bavaria, no intellectuals were involved, instead this charming institution (who could resisit a body whose President was for more than a decade called Hippolyt Theodor Wilhelm Georg Benedikt Johannes Maria Freiherr Poschinger von Frauenau; also, there was a representation of the Church, e.g. protonotary apostolic Josef Lederer was a member at its dissolution) was scrificed on the altar of “slimming down the state” and “reducing beaurocracy”, with the politicians mindlessly echoing the dreary soulless argot of business consultants.