McDowell leads group vowing to oppose Seanad abolition

A campaign to save the Seanad, involving a number of prominent historians, academics and political personalities, will be launched today, promising to strongly oppose the Government’s “populist” proposal to abolish the Upper House.

The former justice minister Michael McDowell as well as historian, Diarmaid Ferriter, and chair of the National Gallery, Olive Braiden, are among those involved in Democracy Matters — which describes itself as “an independent, broad-based group from across Irish society”.

It will be chaired by political scientist Dr Gary Murphy, who writes below that abolishing the Seanad would not amount to political reform but rather a “cull to a vital aspect of our constitutional democracy”.