I know one of the questions no one would
be undiplomatic enough to ask me is my
age but if you did I tell you I’m old
enough to have seen Ireland change
change utterly and change utterly for
the better I’m old enough to have been
instrumental in some of that great
change but here’s the kicker I’m young
enough to be Ireland’s Deputy Prime
Minister tarnished and I’m young enough
to be enthusiastic about my country as
an international leader in inclusion
peace and prosperity in this world I
grew up in an Ireland best summed up in
the title of a major novel of the time
it was called the valley of the
squinting windows great image is it not
a valley where all the houses have a
view of the other houses where everybody
watches everybody else but not in a good
way not in a good way because squinting
windows only see what is narrow and what
is nasty the booktitle might have
described Ireland for a time after our
war of independence we ruled ourselves
yes but because we were still so
economically dependent on our nearest
neighbor it was government for survival
not for success the nation for the most
part with as a level of subsistence that
today would be considered really dire
poverty no electricity in many homes
then no piped water no toilets inside
the home education for money
own only until the early teens many
leaving school very very early and very
poor job prospects a lot of immigration
one religion very very dominant and a
dominant to the extent that where a
priest could announce from the altar the
name of anybody in the area in the
priests view who was behaving badly
oh yes back then Ireland was a valley of
the squinting windows those squinting
windows looked harshly at everybody but
they looked particularly harshly at
women a young woman who became pregnant
out of wedlock was very often ostracized
by her own family often banished to a
religious run institution a mother and
baby home where her baby would be taken
from her and adopted and no choice no
life but her life spent griefing a life
lived in the shadow of condemnation
Ireland back then was more about control
than inclusion and particularly control
of women a woman working for the
government in any job lost her job when
she married it was the law until 1972
after I had finished in college getting
married equalled to sit dismissal from
the civil service why because of the man
of the house was supposed to look after
you to provide and therefore why would
you need a job
a woman’s property was owned by her
husband even if he wanted a card to
allow you to take out a library book he
needed to be signed women didn’t really
step out of line because you know they
all lived in that folly of the squinting
windows now of course there were lots of
kindnesses too and compassion of the
human spirit always prevails that was
compassion
my grandfather exemplified both he was
the man in his local community a small
town in the south of Ireland who provide
it’s simple necessary services in a very
quiet respectful way he would write
letters and fill forms in the
neighbourhood for people who wouldn’t
have been fully literate
my own father served in the Irish army
he got his opportunity to go into the
army he was also community voluntary
worker and at the time had the polio
epidemic of the 50s had come to a halt
leaving devastation he has to go around
to the families find out what they
needed what services they needed and I
would go with him it was the first time
I really saw terribly poor conditions
that people were living in there was
terrible pride as well though and
laughter always but that awful poverty
and when I look back at the photographs
of president john f kennedy’s visit to
Ireland in 1963 it brings it all back
the contrast between this confident
laughing powerful man who was visiting
us and the grayness of so many of the
locations where he spent time and yet
the Irish people were so proud of him so
proud of this giant who had come to see
them and what is most interesting about
John of Kennedy’s words are how often he
talked about poverty he didn’t grow up
in poverty of course he didn’t quite the
opposite but his family did carry an
almost indelible memory of the Ireland
they had left and to the Kennedy family
and to his generation in Ireland him
becoming president of America was a line
in the sand a new empowerment a sense
that if one of our own could get to the
White House nothing was beyond us when I
left school I qualified as a social
worker I went to London and I spent
seven years working there I learned to
laugh during those years in London and
not just because of his poster swinging
60 60s it wasn’t the valley of the
squinting windows that’s for sure I came
back to Ireland with a sense of infinite
possibilities my eldest son had been
born there I got involved in women’s
rights women’s voices the maternity
hospitals I felt that was really
important but I came back to an Ireland
where it was still illegal to be gay
where the church control lives for
contraception was available only on
prescription I became chair of the
National Women’s Council and ended up
leading it and then I was asked to go
into politics and I went in like a lot
of people I got a lecture I got
two fishes I got electus again I became
Minister for children and then Minister
for justice and equality and now
Minister for business and enterprise and
innovation as well as tarnished air
Deputy Prime Minister wherever I went in
government I carried something within me
an unseen banner of one word inclusion
the best definition of inclusion in my
view is the one Franklin Roosevelt came
up with the story goes that a
speechwriter put a manuscript in front
of him a manuscript of a speech the
president was going to make and one of
the lines in the speech was we must
build an inclusive society and the story
goes was a perfectly good statement FDR
stopped looked at us and he hand wrote
the replacement we must build a society
where nobody feels left out and that’s
the best in a definition of an inclusive
society I’ve come across and the reality
is that when I started in politics
Ireland was very decidedly not a society
where nobody felt left out many people
felt left out as I said to you women
felt left out well we began to change
that change it utterly as I said at the
beginning the old career restrictions
went property restrictions went Ireland
became a better place for women a place
of possibility and pride a place where
women could and did hold every similar
senior position in our criminal justice
system and a place where women could and
have become president to women have done
that so far one group who should have
left out bush were too young to
understand the concept
Ireland’s children they were left out so
we put the rights of children into the
Constitution in back in 2012 when I was
Minister for Children we passed all of
us a children’s rights referendum so for
the first time ever the state is now
required to think of children as
individuals not simply as members of a
family but children’s rights as well as
adults rights another group that fell
if left out were LGTBQ I’d community a
former female Minister for justice had
abolished the laws that made being gay
illegal but removing legal penalties
does not an inclusive society make and
most still felt that they lived in an
Ireland of those squinting windows that
I spoke about they felt equal only up to
a point and that point was marriage they
could have a civil partnership big deal
most of them said that isn’t the same
this is not an inclusive society if we
feel left out of one of the key values
of Irish society family family and
marriage and that’s what happened on the
23rd have made 2015 but I want to tell
you about two people coming up to that
marriage equality referendum the general
secretary of my political party is a
former seminarian named Tom Curren he
stepped way outside his comfort zone a
regular mass going fairly quite
self-effacing man but this quite
traditionalist had a son he had a gay
son and he stood up for his gay son in a
video that went viral and encouraged
others so many others of his age and
generation to come out and vote YES for
marriage equality then there was a woman
a TV reporter called Ursula Halligan her
household name familiar face but still a
very private person and two weeks before
we voted in the referendum
she wrote a column for the Irish Times
newspaper about her 50 years being in
the prison the prison of being silently
gay Tom Curren and Ursula Halligan leads
their reputations on the line in the
interests of inclusion and so did many
others their courage led to a glorious
day in recent Irish history May the 23rd
2015 on that day the Quadrangle in
Dublin Castle was filled wall-to-wall
with couples
with their children with rainbow flags
with happiness and with relief as we
celebrated the passing of the equal
marriage referendum all of Ireland young
and old urban and rural had made a
gesture of inclusivity and said you
belong you have the same rights whether
you’re straight or gay welcome to a new
Ireland that has its arms out for you it
felt like home every place that day felt
like home as Minister for justice I was
responsible for the legislation it was
the best moment of my career Ireland was
the first country in the world to
introduce marriage equality by way of
referendum of the people
it broke the squinting windows forever
it told the world we in Ireland are
building a society where nobody feels
left out but we’re not done we’re not
nearly done inclusivity is a task that
never ends but never ceases to deliver
emotionally personally socially
culturally and economically the next
step for Ireland indeed for so many
countries around the world is to make
sure that several groups of people don’t
feel left out people like refugees and
asylum seekers people like migrant
workers who bring their skills and their
hopes to our countries people like the
elderly who so badly want to belong to a
community not just being seen as a
category I want to make sure that
Ireland takes the next step for those
with mental health issues for people
with disability I want to make sure
Arlen takes the next step because I
still carry that unseen banner with the
single word inclusion honest I always
will thank you very much
[Applause]
be undiplomatic enough to ask me is my
age but if you did I tell you I’m old
enough to have seen Ireland change
change utterly and change utterly for
the better I’m old enough to have been
instrumental in some of that great
change but here’s the kicker I’m young
enough to be Ireland’s Deputy Prime
Minister tarnished and I’m young enough
to be enthusiastic about my country as
an international leader in inclusion
peace and prosperity in this world I
grew up in an Ireland best summed up in
the title of a major novel of the time
it was called the valley of the
squinting windows great image is it not
a valley where all the houses have a
view of the other houses where everybody
watches everybody else but not in a good
way not in a good way because squinting
windows only see what is narrow and what
is nasty the booktitle might have
described Ireland for a time after our
war of independence we ruled ourselves
yes but because we were still so
economically dependent on our nearest
neighbor it was government for survival
not for success the nation for the most
part with as a level of subsistence that
today would be considered really dire
poverty no electricity in many homes
then no piped water no toilets inside
the home education for money
own only until the early teens many
leaving school very very early and very
poor job prospects a lot of immigration
one religion very very dominant and a
dominant to the extent that where a
priest could announce from the altar the
name of anybody in the area in the
priests view who was behaving badly
oh yes back then Ireland was a valley of
the squinting windows those squinting
windows looked harshly at everybody but
they looked particularly harshly at
women a young woman who became pregnant
out of wedlock was very often ostracized
by her own family often banished to a
religious run institution a mother and
baby home where her baby would be taken
from her and adopted and no choice no
life but her life spent griefing a life
lived in the shadow of condemnation
Ireland back then was more about control
than inclusion and particularly control
of women a woman working for the
government in any job lost her job when
she married it was the law until 1972
after I had finished in college getting
married equalled to sit dismissal from
the civil service why because of the man
of the house was supposed to look after
you to provide and therefore why would
you need a job
a woman’s property was owned by her
husband even if he wanted a card to
allow you to take out a library book he
needed to be signed women didn’t really
step out of line because you know they
all lived in that folly of the squinting
windows now of course there were lots of
kindnesses too and compassion of the
human spirit always prevails that was
compassion
my grandfather exemplified both he was
the man in his local community a small
town in the south of Ireland who provide
it’s simple necessary services in a very
quiet respectful way he would write
letters and fill forms in the
neighbourhood for people who wouldn’t
have been fully literate
my own father served in the Irish army
he got his opportunity to go into the
army he was also community voluntary
worker and at the time had the polio
epidemic of the 50s had come to a halt
leaving devastation he has to go around
to the families find out what they
needed what services they needed and I
would go with him it was the first time
I really saw terribly poor conditions
that people were living in there was
terrible pride as well though and
laughter always but that awful poverty
and when I look back at the photographs
of president john f kennedy’s visit to
Ireland in 1963 it brings it all back
the contrast between this confident
laughing powerful man who was visiting
us and the grayness of so many of the
locations where he spent time and yet
the Irish people were so proud of him so
proud of this giant who had come to see
them and what is most interesting about
John of Kennedy’s words are how often he
talked about poverty he didn’t grow up
in poverty of course he didn’t quite the
opposite but his family did carry an
almost indelible memory of the Ireland
they had left and to the Kennedy family
and to his generation in Ireland him
becoming president of America was a line
in the sand a new empowerment a sense
that if one of our own could get to the
White House nothing was beyond us when I
left school I qualified as a social
worker I went to London and I spent
seven years working there I learned to
laugh during those years in London and
not just because of his poster swinging
60 60s it wasn’t the valley of the
squinting windows that’s for sure I came
back to Ireland with a sense of infinite
possibilities my eldest son had been
born there I got involved in women’s
rights women’s voices the maternity
hospitals I felt that was really
important but I came back to an Ireland
where it was still illegal to be gay
where the church control lives for
contraception was available only on
prescription I became chair of the
National Women’s Council and ended up
leading it and then I was asked to go
into politics and I went in like a lot
of people I got a lecture I got
two fishes I got electus again I became
Minister for children and then Minister
for justice and equality and now
Minister for business and enterprise and
innovation as well as tarnished air
Deputy Prime Minister wherever I went in
government I carried something within me
an unseen banner of one word inclusion
the best definition of inclusion in my
view is the one Franklin Roosevelt came
up with the story goes that a
speechwriter put a manuscript in front
of him a manuscript of a speech the
president was going to make and one of
the lines in the speech was we must
build an inclusive society and the story
goes was a perfectly good statement FDR
stopped looked at us and he hand wrote
the replacement we must build a society
where nobody feels left out and that’s
the best in a definition of an inclusive
society I’ve come across and the reality
is that when I started in politics
Ireland was very decidedly not a society
where nobody felt left out many people
felt left out as I said to you women
felt left out well we began to change
that change it utterly as I said at the
beginning the old career restrictions
went property restrictions went Ireland
became a better place for women a place
of possibility and pride a place where
women could and did hold every similar
senior position in our criminal justice
system and a place where women could and
have become president to women have done
that so far one group who should have
left out bush were too young to
understand the concept
Ireland’s children they were left out so
we put the rights of children into the
Constitution in back in 2012 when I was
Minister for Children we passed all of
us a children’s rights referendum so for
the first time ever the state is now
required to think of children as
individuals not simply as members of a
family but children’s rights as well as
adults rights another group that fell
if left out were LGTBQ I’d community a
former female Minister for justice had
abolished the laws that made being gay
illegal but removing legal penalties
does not an inclusive society make and
most still felt that they lived in an
Ireland of those squinting windows that
I spoke about they felt equal only up to
a point and that point was marriage they
could have a civil partnership big deal
most of them said that isn’t the same
this is not an inclusive society if we
feel left out of one of the key values
of Irish society family family and
marriage and that’s what happened on the
23rd have made 2015 but I want to tell
you about two people coming up to that
marriage equality referendum the general
secretary of my political party is a
former seminarian named Tom Curren he
stepped way outside his comfort zone a
regular mass going fairly quite
self-effacing man but this quite
traditionalist had a son he had a gay
son and he stood up for his gay son in a
video that went viral and encouraged
others so many others of his age and
generation to come out and vote YES for
marriage equality then there was a woman
a TV reporter called Ursula Halligan her
household name familiar face but still a
very private person and two weeks before
we voted in the referendum
she wrote a column for the Irish Times
newspaper about her 50 years being in
the prison the prison of being silently
gay Tom Curren and Ursula Halligan leads
their reputations on the line in the
interests of inclusion and so did many
others their courage led to a glorious
day in recent Irish history May the 23rd
2015 on that day the Quadrangle in
Dublin Castle was filled wall-to-wall
with couples
with their children with rainbow flags
with happiness and with relief as we
celebrated the passing of the equal
marriage referendum all of Ireland young
and old urban and rural had made a
gesture of inclusivity and said you
belong you have the same rights whether
you’re straight or gay welcome to a new
Ireland that has its arms out for you it
felt like home every place that day felt
like home as Minister for justice I was
responsible for the legislation it was
the best moment of my career Ireland was
the first country in the world to
introduce marriage equality by way of
referendum of the people
it broke the squinting windows forever
it told the world we in Ireland are
building a society where nobody feels
left out but we’re not done we’re not
nearly done inclusivity is a task that
never ends but never ceases to deliver
emotionally personally socially
culturally and economically the next
step for Ireland indeed for so many
countries around the world is to make
sure that several groups of people don’t
feel left out people like refugees and
asylum seekers people like migrant
workers who bring their skills and their
hopes to our countries people like the
elderly who so badly want to belong to a
community not just being seen as a
category I want to make sure that
Ireland takes the next step for those
with mental health issues for people
with disability I want to make sure
Arlen takes the next step because I
still carry that unseen banner with the
single word inclusion honest I always
will thank you very much
[Applause]
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