Starry Plough Reminds Us of Our History - Costello

30 April 2013

by Cllr Joe Costello

Speaking at the unveiling of the conserved Starry Plough flag

National Museum, Collins Barracks

 

I am delighted to have this opportunity to thank the President for his presence here today, and for his kind words.

 

In a letter [to Jack Carney] written in 1943, Sean O’Casey wrote of the Starry Plough: ‘It was the finest flag – in design and execution – Ireland ever had. It’s a great pity that flag was lost’.

 

Today, 70 years later, the flag is found, and rests here in the care of the National museum. I want to warmly congratulate everyone who has been involved in this project of restoration.

From the Labour Party’s perspective, this project was originally conceived as part of the celebrations of the Party centenary.

 

During a conversation between Mags Murphy, Paul Daly and Noel Cullen from the Labour Party, with then Director of the National Museum of Ireland, Dr. Patrick Wallace and his colleague Raghnall O’Floinn, about Labour’s centenary celebrations, the question arose as to the whereabouts of the flag.

 

After a search, the museum confirmed that the flag was in their possession, but that it was in bad shape, and was not suitable for exhibition. However, it was decided to have the flag examined by an expert, and the General Secretary of the Labour Party proposed to the Centenary Committee that a way would be found to pay for its restoration.

 

In April 2012 at the Labour Party Conference in NUIG, a replica flag was loaned by the National Museum which went on exhibition with other items relating to the history of the Labour Party. Members of the Labour Party then began to make donations towards the conservation of the flag.

 

I want to thank everyone who was involved with the Project from the National Museum, including Rolly Read, Head of Conservation, Rachel Phelan who undertook the restoration work, Lar Joye from the National Museum and all the other museum staff who have worked with us, from offering support and advice, to the building of the exhibition case, and assisting with preparing the Riding School this evening. I also want to acknowledge the presence of the extended team who supported Rachel Phelan including Garda and Army forensics, the OPW, the sister museums and institutions across Ireland and abroad who played a role.

 

I also want to thank the Centenary committee, and the Secretary General, Ita McAuliffe for the time and effort they contributed, to make this happen.

It is fitting that this project was funded by donations from many individual members of the Labour Party. Not only is the flag itself an important historical artefact, but the symbol it carries has such a special place in the heart of the Labour movement.

 

The starry plough elegantly combines two important emblems – the plough, which has always been a symbol of physical, productive, labour - And the stars, which are used across the world as a badge of aspiration and idealism. The plough in the stars is an expression of the idea and ambition of a better future for working people.

 

Putting the flag on display is important to this decade of commemorations. It reminds us that the history of Ireland in the decade that brought our State into being, was far more complex and nuanced than is often portrayed.

 

For many years, a simple Green versus Orange story was handed down from on high, which wrote many important elements, including the Labour movement, out of the script.

 

The reality, as we are reminded in this centenary of the lockout, was far more complicated. There were many different strands that ran through and became intertwined in the rich tapestry of Irish history in this time. These included a growing and more militant trade union movement, which was seeking to improve the conditions of the working class, while the prospect of a home rule parliament led to the formation of the Labour Party.

 

Although the Irish Citizen Army is mostly remembered for its role in 1916, it is sometimes forgotten that the ICA was established to defend trade union meetings from attack by the police, who were themselves Irishmen. Relations between the Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers were not always friendly, and it is a striking fact that O’Casey, who was Secretary of the Citizen Army, later remembered the flag as having a blue, rather than a Green background. And yet, the Citizen Army, when it was reconstituted after the lockout, was soon drawn into the national struggle.

 

Then, as now, it was clear that the cause of Labour was the cause of Ireland.

 

If the decade of commemorations is to mean anything, then we must use the opportunity to reflect on the full complexity of what happened in those years. We must remember, discuss and debate, not just the role of revolutionary nationalism. We must find a place for all traditions, including Ulster Unionism and Constitutional Nationalism. It is also vital that we acknowledge the importance of social thinking and class politics in the formation of modern Ireland. There is no viable explanation of what occurred, unless you incorporate the lockout, and the swell of discontent from the dispossessed. It is important to remember that, at the time, there was more than one vision of what the new Ireland should be.

 

Today, more than ever, we need the kind of vision and ambition that Plough in the Stars represents. Like the earliest navigators, we need to know the stars to steer by. We are living through extraordinary times – the most economically turbulent times in the history of the State. We know, that there will storms that will blow us off course, that there will be tides against which we have to swim, that there will be days when it is hard to see the way ahead. We need to have a clear sense of what it is we are working to achieve. So that, no matter what obstacles we have to confront, no matter what detours we sometimes have to follow, we always know where we are going, and why we want to get there, and that we are moving forward.

 

The Plough in the Stars stands for a vision of a better life for all of us. It stands for the dignity of work. For the idea that people should have the opportunity to earn a living and build a better life for themselves and their families.

 

Its stands for freedom, the freedom for people to steer their own lives, by their own lights, and to make their own choices.

 

It stands for community and solidarity. For the idea that we are all stronger together, and that solidarity is the platform on which we can all flourish.

 

It stands for reform and progress. For the idea that we can build a better Ireland. That there is a better Ireland that we can create for our children.

 

It stands for an Ireland where children flourish to the limit of their potential, and where we can all grow old with dignity in the company of our friends. An Ireland where arbitrary power, and ancient privilege, do not overcome the claims of collective decency and fairness.

 

This is our creed. These are our stars. This is what guides us.

 

Thank you.