Tolerance ‘would make Collins proud’
MICHAEL Collins would be happy to see the tolerant country Ireland has become, according to his grandniece Mary Claire O’Malley.
Speaking at a Friends of Sligo Gaol event to commemorate 100 years since Collins’s incarceration in the prison, Ms O’Malley said 2018 Ireland is a place her granduncle would be proud to see.
“I’ve lived through the fifties and as an educator in the sixties and became a principal in 1995 to 2002. I would be aware of what was going on in education and I think he’d be very pleased,” she said.
“Religious tolerance is very acceptable and
I was delighted with the referendums and particularly the last one.
“I was in a very good academically focused school but with an average of two pregnancies a year. But now they don’t have to worry.
“Those girls came to me and I just said to them, ‘Look, there are larger uniforms.’ If they wanted to continue, they could continue – or certainly come back.
“I think under the surface there was a tolerance all the time which developed thanks to the youth. We educated them to be openminded and tolerant.”
Remarking that Collins was only 31 when he died, Ms O’Malley said of current politicians: “Look at Harris and Leo.
“They are young too. I think it’s important to have a youngish Cabinet.”