Councillors in Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown, South Dublin, have been criticised for voting not to display a copy of the 1916 proclamation in their council chamber. The council is one of the few around the country that does not display the document.
At a meeting of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, seven Fianna Fáil councillors tabled a motion to have a copy of the 1916 proclamation "permanently and prominently displayed" in the chambers, along with the national flag.
A heated half-hour debate followed, with Fine Gael and Labour councillors putting forward various amendments to the motion, including one suggesting the document would be better displayed in the assembly hall and in Irish and another suggesting that a letter be sent to the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, calling on her to ask schools to display the proclamation.
The Green Party suggested the EU flag should also be included in the chamber.
When put to the vote, the motion was rejected by nine to eight, with Fianna Fáil, the PD councillor and the Greens supporting it and Fine Gael and Labour rejecting it. Eleven councillors were not present for the vote.
Councillor Cormac Devlin (FF) said they had not anticipated a lengthy debate.
"We didn't expect it to be controversial," he said.
However, Labour councillor Denis O'Callaghan accused Fianna Fáil of opportunism.
"This is part of a Fianna Fáil attempt to take ownership of 1916, a race with Sinn Féin to see who can claim it," he said.
Councillor John Bailey (FG) said he voted against displaying the proclamation because it was too serious an issue to debate when so many of the council's members were missing.
