A FIRST sitting of the Dail outside Dublin is being proposed for Limerick's Charter 800 year in 1997 as a help to the Northern peace process.
An invitation to the Dail to sit in Limerick is on the agenda for next Monday night's meeting of the city council and has already been discussed with Dail party leaders.
The move comes from the Irish Parliament Trust, which first made the suggestion during Limerick's Treaty 300 year in 1991. Set up in 1986 and headed by Mr Paddy McGarvey, a retired journalist, now a lobbyist, the Irish Parliament Trust seeks to promote the concept of a dual Irish parliament sitting at a location outside Dublin or Belfast.
Mr McGarvey has been invited to give a paper on the proposal to the British Irish Interparliamentary Body meeting at Bath for three days from September 23rd. He attended the last meeting of the body in Adare, Co Limerick, in May.
Freedom for the Dail to meet next year in Limerick when the city celebrates the 800th anniversary of the charter granted by King John is provided under Article 15 of the Constitution.
"Now is the time to make use of that freedom, and as there is provision in the Government of Ireland Act which enables a Northern parliament to move about, Limerick could play a dramatic part in moves for a shared parliamentary capital outside Dublin and Belfast," Mr McGarvey said.
The Irish Parliament Trust, based in Armagh, acted as adviser to Lord Carrington as first European Union peace envoy to Yugoslavia. Mr McGarvey, who started his career in journalism with the Southern Star in Skibbereen, Co Cork, was a founder member of Clann na Poblachta and during a long newspaper career in Britain he took time off to contest the Mid Ulster constituency for the Northern Ireland Labour Party in 1964. He received 5,050 votes and worked on many other labour campaigns in the North.