In Jul 1979, a referendum opening up the third-level graduate franchise for elections to Seanad Éireann was overwhelmingly passed by the Irish people.

At a moment when the capacity of politics to deliver, lead or even describe the kind of social change and economic rejuvenation we urgently need is in question, the future of an institution as detached and as apparently irrelevant as the Seanad may seem unimportant but, as anyone who does not live in an active, participatory democracy will confirm, it is not.