Loud and clear: Ruth Coppinger at FAI headquarters on Friday calling for a boycott of the Ireland v Israel match. The Solidarity TD got in a shouting match with Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins last summer. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
The Bells! The Bells!
It’s bad enough having to listen to some of the stuff politicians come out with, but those infernal bells are the head-wreckers of Leinster House.
Loudly summoning TDs and Senators to votes and sittings, they are a necessary part of parliamentary life. But this incessant binging and bonging, dinging and donging in every corner of the place does not make for easy listening.
There has to be a way to make it less melojian and more melody.
As Margaret Thatcher (and St Francis) once famously said: “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.”
And hopefully, harmony may soon find an unlikely home in Leinster House.
Fianna Fáil’s Malcolm Byrne wrote to the Ceann Comhairle last month suggesting that the Oireachtas might consider appointing a composer-in-residence.
“I would envision this as a short scholarship, ideally for an emerging composer and that he or she would be charged with developing a short piece of music that recognises democracy in Ireland.”
He said they could also look at the division bells “to see if more pleasant sounds could be found”, pointing out that some people who are neurodivergent have reacted quite badly to them when visiting.
There is precedence for this. The Dutch parliament recently appointed a composer-in-residence and is examining how to improve the bells. In 2024, the Tweede Kamer (lower house) published a playlist of the favourite songs of each of the 150 members of parliament and made it available on Spotify.
We could probably do without that.
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