Our most valuable national resources

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Writer Maeve Binchy’s death has prompted consideration of notables who might be described as our national treasures, says Barbara Scully

A country’s greatest wealth is its people and Ireland has been blessed with fantastic individuals who symbolise the good in being Irish.

Maeve Binchy, who has died aged 72, was one of our national treasures. But who else should be awarded that ‘title’?

Maeve Binchy

We are told that we Irish are a nation of storytellers and no-one embodied this trait more than the wonderfully warm and witty Binchy. At Dalkey’s much-loved Book Festival each June, she would hold court in Finnegan’s pub, in the village, on a Sunday morning, where she might read from a new work and spin tales from her own life, while her adoring audience munched on smoked salmon on brown bread and sipped bucks fizz. Anyone who witnessed the writer in full conversational flow couldn’t but realise that she was a national treasure.

Imelda May

Have you met anyone who dislikes Imelda May? Her natural effervescence and upbeat personality are the obvious things to like. But when May talks, you realise she is a young woman comfortable in her own skin, who knows exactly who she is, who loves her family, and is hugely proud of them and of her inner-city Dublin background.

May has charm and grace, and when she sings she touches your very soul. Gay Byrne said of her, on the Late Late Show 50th anniversary special, that he had never known anyone whom the country seemed to fall in love with so completely and so quickly.

Olivia O’Leary

Journalist and broadcaster Olivia O’Leary’s laser-sharp wit, and insightful musings on the country’s politicians and their doings, make her weekly radio column on RTÉ Drivetime essential listening.

O’Leary effortlessly taps into the zeitgeist and articulates beautifully thoughts the rest of us had not yet fully understood we were having. Her early days hosting current affairs prime-time shows revealed her incredible intellect and her political insight, traits which have been matched by few since.

Politicians did not face interviews with Ms O’Leary lightly. On a panel discussion on the Late Late Show in Jan 2011, O’Leary proposed that children should spend their first year in secondary school learning how to think. She said “It’s the big lack in our education system here ... we have never been taught how to think ... As a result, our ability to debate, to decide on the sort of values we share, is something we don’t have.”

John Lonergan

Former governor of Mountjoy Prison, John Lonergan comes equipped with a ready smile and soft Tipperary accent and is the embodiment of compassion. During his 40 years or so working in the prison service, he spoke endlessly about how prisons are “full of broken people”. He worked tirelessly to persuade us of the need for prison reform, always coming from a place of empathy and humanity. He was a constant voice for the socially disadvantaged, the mentally ill and the lost, who often end up incarcerated. Our broken little country needs more voices like John Lonergan’s.

Mary McAleese

Mary McAleese should have had an impossible task when she took over the presidency from Mary Robinson in 1997. Robinson, who had been elected on a tide of goodwill and enthusiasm, and who exhorted us all to dance with her in Eireann and burn a light in the window of the Aras, was a hard act to follow. But President McAleese began slowly and quietly, working away on her theme of building bridges. Who could have dreamed that, by the end of her second term in office, she would have been hosting Queen Elizabeth on a state visit to this republic?

We now know that both the former president and her husband, Martin, worked tirelessly and courageously creating links with loyalist communities in the North. It was, therefore, right and proper that this work culminated in the historic royal visit last year. History will surely record her presidency as one of the most important in the history of this State.

John Bowman

The elder statesman of Irish current affairs broadcasting, it’s hard not to miss Bowman’s voice and intelligent moderation of programmes such as Questions and Answers on RTÉ television. As an historian, he brought a certain gravitas to such programmes and was able to place current political activity into a broader context. Although he himself possibly saw his role in simpler terms, having once remarked “the broadcaster in a programme like Questions and Answers is the gatekeeper against bullshit and nonsense.” As for Bowman’s handling of live general election coverage, in the days before computer-generated graphics and computations — well, that’s just the stuff of legend.

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