I think most farmers have grown up with some kind of cultural or community involvement. In many cases, it’s a piano in the corner of the living room, in many more it’s an involvement in the local GAA, but it’s increasingly clear that a society that encourages its youth to an involvement beyond the academic and the pursuit of a livelihood has a glue that makes it work.

Over the last fortnight, I’ve been exposed to two separate events where the Taoiseach Enda Kenny spoke about the importance of the arts and culture in the broadest sense. I had never seen him quite like this before but it’s clear that the broad feeling of disenchantment that led to the UK to vote to leave the European Union and also saw the election of Donald Trump in the US has struck a chord with the Irish political establishment. I’m not sure if it was sparked by the success of the 1916 commemorations – the central part that the armed forces played in those commemorations and more to the point, the inclusiveness they exhibited by involving people from various traditions in the country.

The part played by Heather Humphreys and her unusual mix of backgrounds leant a further stimulus to what could have been simply an exercise in empty triumphalism. It is now clear that the arts and culture in the broadest sense are going to be given an extra place in Irish life and rightly the Government is starting with the children.

The capacity to participate in music, drama and the appreciation of art are being increasingly recognised as adding an extra dimension to children’s lives and, more to the point, this extra capacity for participating in and appreciating artistic activity enriches their lives as they grow into adolescence and adulthood.

The legitimate question is what all this has to do with the economic progress of society. It’s clear that it has quite a lot. The teamwork that’s necessary to participate in a choir or a concert or the discipline required to learn how to play an instrument or paint a picture well is a valuable lifelong skill and it’s this appreciation of lifelong endeavours that it is hoped will perpetuate a socially cohesive society. This is coupled with Ireland’s enviable tradition where equality of opportunity in schooling is seen as a critical component of ordinary life unlike in the UK or the US. The economic spin-off from this broad societal approach can be enormous and it is impossible not to approve wholeheartedly of the drive to bring art and culture in its broadest sense to every school in Ireland.

With such a large population of non-nationals in modern Ireland, divisions such as we have seen in the US, UK and France should be avoided at all costs.