Mary Lou McDonald
speaker
367 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard May 2026
last heard 7 Jul
Mary Lou McDonald’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 2.
Appearances
That's the democratic established norm and we should not, under any circumstances, stray from that.
And the Good Friday Agreement is very, very clear on that matter.
But let me say this to your question.
I think the danger of disengagement, the danger of disgruntlement
and disenfranchisement arises from a failure to plan.
The course of action that I am proposing now is that the government here blow the whistle, begin the preparations, do the very detailed work in preparing a green paper.
On the back of that detailed deep dive work, convene the citizens assembly, invest the time, invest the space,
listen to people, give people the opportunity to engage.
That is the best way.
In fact, I am convinced that is the only way that you can underpin an orderly process, because the democratic nature of this decision is, yes, defined by people going to the ballot box and making their mark, yes or no, one way or the other.
Of course, that's the ultimate democratic action.
But there's a democratic imperative beyond that,
And it begins now.
It begins.
It's the imperative of recognising the fact that these referendums are provided for, that they will happen and actually showing people the respect to have that engagement and giving that space.
And there has been enormous amounts of work done already by the Ahrens Project, by the ESRI.
the university of notre dame dc i could list i i beck you could go on and on and on there has been no end of work already done no end of conversations and thinking and and queries raised and dilemmas identified what we have not had is the space for that to land and it needs to land and i i really hope
that Fianna Fáil in particular and their leader and Fine Gael and colleagues beyond that, all of whom over the last weeks have been privately really, really supportive and see just the good sense of this.
I really hope that there can be a collegious approach, that we can pass this legislation and then in a collaborative way, just roll up our sleeves and get the work done.
This is a question now of nation and Ireland
Showing 81–100 of 367 · page 5 of 19
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