FORMER RTÉ BROADCASTER Bryan Dobson is set to chair a new State Commemorations Advisory Committee. 

The committee has been established with the aim of supporting Government and key stakeholders in the planning and delivery of commemorative events. 

Its mandate will be to maintain “an inclusive, respectful, and consensus-based approach to all commemorative matters”, to offer independent, non-partisan advice to Government when requested and to ensure historical events are commemorated “accurately” and grounded in primary source material.

The committee will also provide guidance on “sensitive or complex themes” associated with historical events.

Dobson, who retired from RTÉ in May last year after 37 years at the broadcaster, will chair the committee, whose members will include former ministers Heather Humphreys and Éamon Ó Cuív.

Professor Marie Coleman, a professor of 20th century Irish history at Queen’s University Belfast, will also sit on the committee.

Other members will include National Archives director Orlaith McBride, National Library Director Dr Audrey Whitty, and Professor Paul Rouse from University College Dublin’s School of History.

Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan is expected to officially announce the formation of the committee tomorrow. 

He will say that the committee will ensure “that the diverse experiences and perspectives that shape our national story continue to be honoured in a respectful and balanced way”.

“Ireland’s story is rich, diverse and often challenging. With the thoughtful guidance of this new Committee, we will continue to honour that story not just as history, but as a shared inheritance that belongs to every citizen,” O’Donovan will say. 

The Minister will meet some of the committee members tomorrow, where they will view a new acquisition by the State.

The typed document is a signed agreement between Éamon de Valera, Austin Stack, Arthur Griffith, and Michael Collins that aimed to address the immediate political crisis arising from the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

The agreement was drafted and signed at the Ard Fheis of Sinn Féin, held on 21-22 February 1922 at the Mansion House in Dublin.

Some 3,000 delegates from all over Ireland attended the Ard Fheis to interpret the constitution of Sinn Féin considering the Treaty and to decide the party’s policy for the upcoming elections.

The document will be added to the collection at the National Archives of Ireland and will be available on the National Archives website for researchers to access.

A related item, Michael Collins’s Memorial Card, will also be shown to the Minister and the committee.