Seanad Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 11 Nov 1987

Vol. 117 No. 12

Enniskillen Bombing: Expressions of Sympathy.

Mr. Lanigan

Before I announce the Order of Business for today, may I just remark that the Seanad is sitting at a time when the nation is under a cloud because of a number of incidents which happened during the past number of weeks on this island? First, it behoves me to send a very sincere and deep expression of sympathy to the relatives and friends of those who died in the carnage in Enniskillen in the past few days. There is nobody in the world — and it does not make any difference from what side of politics they come or from what country they come — who could not but abhor the cruel murder of the people of Enniskillen.

Not alone was there the cruel murder of the people of Enniskillen, but there was also an attempted murder of children on the same day in the west of the North of Ireland, where a bomb did not go off. There were attempts on the lives of other people in the North on the same day. The sympathy of this House has to be expressed, as I have said, to the people who are directly involved and to the families of those who died and, indeed, to the families of those whose injuries will be with them for the rest of their lives. Sympathy must be extended equally to the people of the North of Ireland. We must assure them that there is nobody in this House who could express anything but abhorrence for what happened. It was not done in our name. Nobody can suggest it was. Equally, we must ensure that in the coming weeks nothing we do will give any sympathy, or sign of sympathy or help, to the perpetrators of that hideous crime.

When I say that, we have to refer to the cruel interference by kidnappers with the health of dentist John O'Grady. Savages would not perpetrate the injuries that were done to him. We must admit that throughout this country there is a very small minority of people who helped in the carrying out of that kidnap, whether it was by supplying safe houses, or by not going to the Garda and suggesting that they were in the areas, or by supplying motor vehicles. It is a fact that motor vehicles were used as decoys in many areas. There were a very small number of people involved.

I sincerely hope that people outside the country or, indeed, people inside the country would not consider that the people who were involved in that kidnap had the sympathy of anybody. They are butchers, terrorists and people who have no regard for law and definitely no regard for life. The problems we have in this country will not be resolved by getting down to the level of animals. Animals only, we have to say, would carry out the indiscriminate killing and the indiscriminate carnage that happened over the past couple of weeks.

In conclusion, I wish to say I sincerely hope that never again will I have to stand up in this House and express sympathy or emotion for the people of any part of Ireland because of crimes such as those that were committed over the past few days.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

Before calling Senator Manning, the Chair would prefer if the leaders of the groups would just express sympathy towards those people and not make a very broad, wideranging statement on the matter. I would appreciate the co-operation of my colleagues.

Mr. Manning

I will confine myself to what happened in Enniskillen. The other matters raised by the Leader of the House are properly the subject of a full debate in this House later today.

In the long catalogue of horror over the past 17 years on this island, few events can have generated such total revulsion as the massacre of innocent, decent Irish people, gathered together to solemnly honour their dead in Enniskillen last Sunday. Our hearts and our prayers go out to the families and friends of those so shamefully slaughtered in the name of Irish unity. Coupled with our heartfelt sympathy, however, our unambiguous condemnation of the Provisional IRA and their political facade, Provisional Sinn Féin, must go out from this House. Condemnation in words is not enough. We must show our sincerity in deeds.

The sneaking regarders, the providers of safe houses, the purveyors of hatred and of the double-think must be shown that there is no place for them in our society. The sickening hypocrisy of Sinn Féin must be shown for what it is. The intention of the bombers was to kill and to maim. No words of apology or regret can change that. Finally, I call upon all people on both sides of the Border to give full and unfettered support and co-operation to the police forces on both sides of the Border in bringing the perpetrators of this and other crimes to justice. On behalf of the Fine Gael Party in the Seanad, I want to extend our heartfelt sympathy to those who so needlessly suffered and died last Sunday.

Mr. Robb

I hope the Chair will allow me a little licence. I feel that I am here as the only person, unrepresentative though I may be, belonging to one particular tradition of Irishman. Last Sunday, I had the honour to be invited to address Orga Fianna Fáil in Galway. It was not until I was returning that I heard on the radio the news of what had happened in Enniskillen. Since then, in spite of all the grief and the horror, at time I have felt inspired by some of the things that have been said.

The moving account of Mr. Gordon Wilson of his last minutes with his daughter under the rubble is a tribute to the courage and forebearance of the people of Northern Ireland as a whole. Grief and tragedy similar to his have afflicted many people in our small part of this island. Yet seldom have the words of one man testified so poignantly to the capacity of the human spirit for goodness. His moving statement in which there was no rancour and his simple faith in asking God's forgiveness for those responsible for the deaths of all those people in Enniskillen and for those injured at last Sunday's memorial service included the words: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do". This, surely, was a monument of man's humanity to man. Another great person, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his Nobel prize-winning lecture, concluded in the seventies that violence uses falsehood for its justification and that falsehood sows the seeds of more violence. Until all of us in Ireland can ask ourselves the most profound questions about our attitudes in relation to those most opposed to our point of view, our deeply rooted falsehoods, one about the other, will not be exorcised and the cycle of violence will not be broken.

On 11 November 1987 in Seanad Éireann, I appeal that we should all ask what have we, our families and our tradition, done to create the state of mind, the historical legacy, the hardness of heart and the social condition which, on top of approximately 2,500 deaths — some which I saw with my own eyes — and 30,000 casualties, culminated in Sunday's massacre. As I stand here in Seanad Éireann, perhaps alone but hopefully to be in the future not a lone voice out of my tradition in the North of Ireland, I must start by asking forgiveness for my role and the role of any of those of my tradition who could identify with me, for attitudes and actions through history which have led to the resentment, the guilt, the hatred and the bitterness that brought us to this present point of violent impasse.

There cannot be a family in Ireland who have not suffered grief through loss of a loved one in the First World War, the Rising, the Anglo-Irish War, the Civil War, the Second World War, peace missions and in the past 18 years of strife in Northern Ireland. This day, 11 November, has a special place in the folk memory for many Irish people. Yet, like so many things in Ireland today, the symbolism, the pantheon of heroes associated with this day, may also be a source of division among us when it might be an opportunity for healing. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, my father, along with what remained of the 80,000 Catholic and 50,000 Protestant Irishmen who had gone to fight with Britain, came out of the hellhole of those dug-outs in Flanders. In the 1939-45 war the 40,000 Northern Irishmen who joined up as volunteers to fight the forces of Fascism were joined by 60,000 Southern Irishmen.

Every year, like most families in Northern Ireland, I have worn the poppy as an emblem of remembrance. I have never worn it in Seanad Éireann because I am aware that the same poppy has been perceived as a symbol of imperialism in the Republic. I have no doubt that not everyone would wear the poppy like Gordon Wilson, the father of the young nurse, as an emblem of remembrance, thanksgiving and forgiving. It is because of my respect for this House and the honour done to me by the Taoiseach and his predecessor, and because of the terrible sensitivities and misunderstandings that still exist in Ireland in relation to the bitter legacy of our history that I have never worn the poppy here.

We need trust, courage and a new symbolism if we are to move to give all Irish people the self-confidence to build a new country of independent people recognising their inter-dependence. We also need symbolism. I trust, therefore, that this poppy, which I have never worn but which I hold now in this House, will be seen not as a symbol of imperialism but rather as an emblem of remembrance, repentance, thanksgiving and forgiving. I will now offer you this poppy, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, and may I say how proud I am to stand before you and before this great flag which, as I have said before in this House, represents an emblem of peace.

Senator Robb left his seat, approached the dais and presented the Leas-Chathaoirleach with a poppy.

The Members applauded.

Mr. Harte

After hearing those very moving words from Senator Robb, I feel a little inadequate for the task given to me by the Labour Party. Nevertheless, I feel I must go ahead with it. No matter what language we use to condemn the perpetrators of this atrocity, this deed of elemental savagery, and no matter how harsh are our words or how elequently we voice our condemnations, the terrorists will be in no way convinced.

However, having said that, it is imperative that we never fail to condemn these appalling deeds, always with the thought in mind that we will get the understanding of the people of the North and get the words across to them that the perpetrators are not acting in our name. We must use every opportunity and every forum to condemn in the strongest possible way the appalling callousness of the Provisionals and other terrorists, in the hope that our collective feelings will somehow penetrate to some degree the minds of those ambivalent people, North and South of the Border, to an extent that some, at least, will prise themselves loose.

Words are wasted also on people who provide safe houses, whether they are proprietors or people who rent houses. Nevertheless, we must condemn them also. They are directly guilty of increasing sectarian provocation. Therefore, our words calling on them to re-think their situation would be wasted. Every time we get an opportunity we must come out as strongly as possible to condemn such deeds despite the fact that many people may think words are not sufficient.

Having heard Senator Robb today, the power of words certainly has shown itself here. There are two very significant developments as a result of the Enniskillen bombing. One is the degree and the length to which the Catholic Church are now prepared to go in condemning the Provisional IRA and their associated organisations. In an unprecedented way, the Soviets have now taken it on board. It should go on record that we congratulate the Soviets for taking a stand also. There is a question of an increase in the resources to be made available to the Garda. The whole question of security must be examined. Unless we can give the Garda more resources so that the term "no hiding place" will have real meaning, many of our words will be wasted.

I will conclude by saying, in association with Senator Robb, that it is a sad day when people who come together for the sake of remembering their own dead — and some of the people at those remembrance day services would be very old people and very young people — could be the victims of somebody who could sit down and calculate how to do the maximum damage. In the South of Ireland we have recognised the need to commemorate the memories of all who fell in all wars. When we think of our own soldiers who are giving their lives in the interests of peace in Lebanon, the Congo and other places, and of the terrible difficulties they are faced with, it is sad to think that we could have been commemorating them as well as everyone else. That is, in fact, what we were doing in other places. Somebody could have made up his mind to put a bomb there and blow us to pieces while commemorating our own Irish soldiers who died.

We should not hesitate on any occasion to condemn in a collective way the deeds of any terrorist organisation. We should send a message from the Seanad to the people of Enniskillen expressing our total abhorrence of Sunday's events.

Mr. Farrell

I would like to be associated with the sympathy expressed to the families of those so brutally killed in Enniskillen. I was at that funeral yesterday. I can tell the House that it was a sad occasion. No words could express the great faith and courage of Gordon Wilson. I had the pleasure of being brought back to the hotel to join the family. Mr. Wilson was very composed and accepted that Marie is with God. I just said: "when, oh when, will we, the people of this country, realise that we have all got to unite to beat terrorism?" When you attend such a funeral you see the sadness created by those callous cowards — and they were nothing else. Religion, regardless of what side you are on, is something sacred in this country and that was a religious ceremony. Anybody who interferes with anybody's religious beliefs should never be forgiven. From the bottom of my heart I condemn them. I hope, as many people said yesterday after the funeral, that this is the turning point. Perhaps people have at last seen the ruthlessness and the callousness of those desperate people. I hope all of us from this day forward will ensure that they are put out of existence.

I would also like to pay tribute to the Garda on the release of John O'Grady. When I heard that those people amputated that man's fingers with a hammer and chisel my mind went back 34 years. Nobody here knows the pain and agony of a lost limb. I remember holding my arm and the dreadful pain in it. I cannot bear to think of the pain and agony John O'Grady suffered because of ruthless, heartless criminals who must all be condemned. They must be run to the ground. Everybody — and I emphasise everybody — must play their part in ensuring that wherever they see them they report it and assist the Garda to bring them to justice. No matter how many years sentence they get, it will not be sufficient for the hideous crimes they have committed.

Mrs. Fennell

I would like to thank Senator Robb for his very moving speech and to say how honoured I am to be sharing this House with him. Great grief was caused to everyone when we heard of the awful desecration on Sunday in Enniskillen. It is a grim reminder that this small country is to continue to be torn apart by insane division based on religion and cultural background despite all the efforts of people of peace all over the world.

That any organisation could so arrogantly perform such a callous act and issue such an offensive statement as that which we heard yesterday can only lead one to a sense of despair and hopelessness. Are all the efforts of politicians in the past few years in the New Ireland Forum, with the Anglo-Irish Agreement to mean nothing? Are the contributions of cultural and sports groups, the trade unions and the young people to mean nothing because they are in conflict with these self appointed murderers in the IRA, the INLA, Sinn Féin and any other so called political wings? Are all these efforts towards reconciliation, co-existence and the bringing of the kind of normality to life in Northern Ireland most people can take for granted in other countries to count for nothing?

Sunday's atrocity has shown what the terrorists think of our aspirations along that line. We must say to these violent people once more: "You do not speak for us. Desist from doing so". Also we must say: "We do not want you in our Irish community. We do not want you regardless of what passport you carry any more than we would want to unite with terrorists and fellow travellers from Lebanon, Latin America or anywhere else. Your brethren, I feel, are in the violent communities of the world, not here in the Twenty-six Counties. You identify only with those who trade in guns and the tools of destruction and cause the loss of human life and the maiming of so many. You are so dehumanised. You do not speak the language of ordinary people."

I would like to send my sincere sympathy and that of my family to the people of Enniskillen.

Mr. Mooney

Like other Members of the House I, too, was somewhat humbled by the contribution made by my colleague, Senator Robb. I know I speak not only for the Members of this House but for people throughout the country in conveying to Senator Robb, and the tradition he represents in this House so honourably, our sincere commiseration and condemnation of what happened in Enniskillen.

I know that the Wilson family are natives of County Leitrim; Gordon Wilson's father lived in Manor-hamilton and sadly died some years ago and was well known in the county mainly through his fishing activities. County Leitrim perhaps, in recent years, has attained a certain notoriety for other events. I know I speak for the overwhelming majority of the people of that small county when I say that the sense of loss we felt for the people in our sister county transcends any attitudes or feelings of a political nature.

I grew up in a small community, like many of the small communities in Northern Ireland where there are other denominations. I live across the road from a Methodist Church. Our community has always had both Church of Ireland people and Methodists within it who have taken a full and active role in that community. I number among my friends people from across the religious divide. Like many towns and villages throughout Ireland, North and South, this community has people within it, families going back to the first Great War, people who were, particularly in the West, members of the Connaught Rangers and who in their way went out to fight for the freedom of small nations and for the nation that then was.

I know the political reality of the sensitivities Senator Robb spoke about in relation to the poppy, but growing up as I did with that knowledge of people I knew and whose families I know, who had for the highest of motives gone out to fight in the first World War, I could never really understand why when 11 November came around even the most basic representation of the sacred remembrance of their cause could not be manifested in the Republic. Perhaps the symbolic presentation of the poppy to the Leas-Chathaoirleach in the House today might go some way towards breaking that old mould despite the political differences there are in this island and despite the reality of part of our country being occupied by a foreign military force.

I do not wish to dwell too much on what is a very sad occasion for this House and through it a very sad occasion for the country generally but I would ask one thing. There should not be an over-reaction to what happened in Enniskillen. I have been attending a trial in London of people I believe to be innocent of the crimes of which they have been accused and convicted primarily as a consequence of an over-reaction in the seventies. I say that in the context in which the debate so far has taken place. Speaking as I do as a representative of the people of County Leitrim, I offer my most heartfelt and sincere commiseration to the families and the friends of those who were murdered last Sunday.

Mr. J. O'Toole

On behalf of those I represent I can only concur with the words which have been said already. It is difficult to follow on the comments of some of the speakers, in particular Senator Robb and Senator Farrell with their personal experiences. Nevertheless, we feel in some sense we have failed. We have failed in many ways. I recall holidaying just outside Enniskillen about 18 months ago and when I noticed that mine was the only Southern car in a very large, well-appointed and beautiful caravan park, I thought to myself how much we had failed. Every time I cross the Border from the North I think how far removed our armchair republicans and our pub politicians are when it comes to recognising the reality; how far we have failed to explain to people that the difference between the Methodist from Enniskillen, the Presbyterian from Ballymena, the Protestant from the Shankill and the Catholic from Cork is really only a sub-cultural difference in the greater scheme of things and in the way that we should be operating as a nation.

What we have seen this week in Enniskillen is, as has already been said, totally and utterly unacceptable. It is unsupportable in any way, shape or form. It is shameful in every way. It is an act of extreme cowardice and it is important to stress this as well to people who pretend to put some sort of a value on courage, etc. It was an act of cowardice; it was an act against people who were in no way able to defend themselves. It was an act against people who were innocent of whatever might have happened whenever, wherever. Undoubtedly, we have also failed in that we have failed to root out and to identify those people who purport to support the campaign, whatever that might be, but who oppose its effects. There can be no distinction. People who support what those cowards are about are also responsible for the action that took place there last weekend. There can be no doubt about this. We must accept some share of the blame in that we have failed to convince our nation of those facts.

We must look for unity of a different kind. We must look for unity of determination, unity of spirit and unity of understanding. We must again trot out the best definition of education which is to create tolerance and not just the tolerance of remaining cool about what happened on Sunday because that is easy enough to ask for: the real tolerance is tolerance of differences in other people's point of view. We have failed miserably to do that. As a nation we have spent more time looking at, creating, seeking out, identifying differences rather than looking at what we have in common and working towards what we have in common. I am not just talking about geographical unity here. I am talking about unity of determination to achieve a quality of life.

I have spent a fair amount of time in the North of Ireland and I have always found a most admirable people, people who have shown extreme resilience to factors over which they have no control. It is important also that we should recognise that the vast majority of people in the North, no matter which political viewpoint they hold, abhor violence of this type and abhor the happenings of last Sunday. There is no support for that kind of event.

As a nation we must ask ourselves: how much longer can we suffer this kind of atrocity? As a country how can we ever think, how can we ever contemplate, how we can ever believe that killing can unify? Where have we failed in giving this message to our people? As public representatives we must not only condemn out of hand these actions but recognise that, as long as these and other such actions continue, we have failed. We have a duty to look into our hearts to find a new direction, to find a new road and to look to a future of people who are supportive of each other.

Mr. Byrne

I join with my colleagues in extending sympathy to the families, friends and relatives of the people who were murdered so brutally in Enniskillen this week-end. Sadly for Ireland, we have many problems down here in the South such as the unemployed. I ask the question: will this help to create a livelihood for our young people who are unemployed, in the light of the publicity it has got throughout the world?

They are nothing short of cowards and I condemn them. I would like to remind anybody with a double think towards their aim that their ambition is to overthrow the institutions of the State here if they get their way. People should be aware of this. What has happened across the Border in the past week is frightening. Our very independence is at stake. It is time for everybody to stand up and be counted because anybody who remains silent is as responsible as the people who were involved in that terrible massacre last Sunday.

With your permission, a Leas-Chathaoirligh, I would like to pay tribute to a neighbour of mine, Detective Martin O'Connor from Cahir, who was so brave in carrying out his duty last weekend. I wish him a speedy recovery and extend every sympathy to his wife and family. I would also like to pay tribute to all the other gardaí and to the three brave ladies who were kidnapped over the weekend, one of them from Tipperary, for the courage they showed. I wish all our gardaí every success. We owe this to them. They are in the front line.

The people of Tipperary are proud of that young detective. He did not think about himself. He went in, in the interests of the nation and the people, to root out those horrible men of violence. Men like him will continue to bring honour to the Garda Síochána.

Mr. Doyle

In 1970 we witnessed bombing tragedies in the northern part of our country and also on one terrible Friday, in our own native city here in Dublin, but what distinguishes what happened at Enniskillen last Sunday from all the other bombing tragedies is that the people of Enniskellin had gathered to commemorate their dead. This commemoration of the dead is a noble tradition. It finds its basis in the Old Testament —"It is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead." Yet, while these people were doing that traditional act, men of violence placed a bomb to take their lives. Let us look for a moment at those whom those people were commemorating. They were Irish men and women who served in two World Wars to save this country and western Europe from the tyranny of Hitler and is it not sad that our own country now is suffering from another kind of tyranny?

We have one promise from Almighty God, that is, that evil will never triumph over good. Before last Sunday this country and the world had never heard of Gordon Wilson. I believe that he is an instrument now being used by Divine Providence to portray to the world what is good as against what is evil. His statement afterwards showed a wonderful New Testment sense of charity and forgiveness. His words, and I am sure the words of many families, are like a beacon of light in a terrible darkness that covers this country. I believe also that what Gordon Wilson's words manifest is probably the courage and symbolism that Senator Robb speaks about. I hope, and I know, that his words will touch the hearts of all civilised men and women and turn them from what is bad to what is good.

I know Senator Robb was deeply moved by what he was saying. Some years ago a young boy who was working in a sawmill in Mountnugent, County Cavan, had his arm severed. He was rushed to the local Cavan hospital but they had not the facilities to deal with the problem. They searched the public houses in Cavan town for ice and packed his arm in a box and sent it along with the young boy to a hospital in Belfast. Nobody asked his religion and for 14 hours a team of surgeons worked to stitch back that limb, and succeeded. Yet, in our midst there are evil men who can take up a gun or plant a bomb and not just take a limb, but take human life and many human lives. I tell that story to distinguish between what is good and what is evil. I also tell it today to pay tribute to Senator Robb and his colleagues for the wonderful contributions they have made in the past and are making today in helping to patch up human bodies that have been mutilated by the men of violence over the past 20 long years.

Before I conclude, I would like to thank the Irish Catholic Bishops and other Church leaders for their unambiguous statements and I hope what they said will be listened to and practised by all people who proclaim themselves Christians.

Mr. G. Reynolds

I would also like to join in extending my sympathy to the families of the people who were so indiscriminately and savagely killed in Enniskillen on Sunday. Like my colleague, Senator Mooney, I live about 15 miles from Enniskillen and I have been there on many occasions to use their sporting facilities and otherwise and I know many people there. We had Leitrim connections among people who lost their lives. Marine Wilson's grandfather came from Leitrim. My next door neighbour lost his first cousin and her husband in the atrocity.

Senator Robb explained the way people feel. It is very sad that we have to make statements like this in the Houses of the Oireachtas. The perpetrators of this cruel deed and their supporters are unfit to live in a civilised society. I ask anybody who knows where those people are who planted that bomb, or any other bombs, to come forward and help in the inquiries so that these wrong doers are put behind bars and not allowed to participate in society.

Mr. Norris

This is a very solemn day. Everyone in this House has been moved in particular by the words and the historic gesture of Senator Robb. I am particularly glad that it was so graciously accepted and unanimously approved by this House. This kind of gesture afforded to us on such a sad occasion is a small beginning on the road of reconciliation and I speak also out of the Southern branch of the tradition which Senator Robb so ably represents in this House.

Like everybody else I was almost moved to tears by the interview with Gordon Wilson but the saddest thing of all in that interview — there were many noble things in it, for example, where he spoke of the fact that he and his wife had the grace on the evening on which their daughter was killed to pray for the perpetrators of that appalling act — was when he said he was glad his daughter had not been left with a shattered body in a wheelchair to survive for decades as an irrelevant codicil to this vile struggle. I think today of the many hundreds of people, with many of whom Senator Robb will be familiar, who have been marginalised in the most unspeakable way and who it is so easy to forget, the people who over the past 15 years have been placed in wheelchairs and who it is so easy, except on tragic occasions like this, to forget about altogether. It is a solemn thought that a parent can say he was glad his child did not survive in this terrible condition.

I would like to echo what the other Members of this House have said with regard to the persons involved in this atrocity and in particular what Senator Fennell said. We want no part of these people; they do not speak for us. Perhaps it would be appropriate for the Government to consider what practical measures can flow from this. I am not thinking of the re-introduction of the death penalty; I think it would be an absolute mistake. It would be wrong for us to allow ourselves under the pressure of emotionalism to sink to the level of barbarity of these people. But they speak for us, they presume to speak for us. Is it not possible to exclude them from our company, to withdraw the previleges with which they have been provided and to find some legislative method of withdrawing the privileges of citizenship from them? In my book, they most certainly are not Irishmen. I do not wish in any sense to be political in a partisan or party sense on this but I cannot help reminding the House that every member of Sinn Féin as well as the IRA is implicated in this.

I remember over the past couple of years how every member of this party was asked to support the policy of the military struggle and the chilling phrase, "the Armalite in one hand and the ballot box in the other". It is futile for persons like Mr. Adams to attempt now to conceal the arm that holds the Armalite because we have seen it and its consequences all too clearly here over these past sad days. Perhaps the most significant thing that this House can do unanimously today is to extend our heartfelt sympathy to our brothers and sisters in the Northern section of this island.

Mr. Cregan

The feeling in this country this week after such a vicious week last week, particularly in the South, left an unbelievable feeling of revulsion in our society. Even from people who I will admit were aware many times before of the bad accidents and incidents in the North there was an extraordinary reaction last Sunday. The incidents in the South in the previous week proved that the violence was coming closer to us and it is now very close to us. Many Senators have said this. I got the feeling that it only happened around the corner, I think there is a message in this. There is a message in the sadness down South all last week because of the kidnapping and the shootings and then in something like this happening. The perpetrators say they represent the people of Ireland or the people of Southern Ireland and want to do these deeds on behalf of us. The people of Cork I was talking to in the past two to three days do not have that feeling.

I offer all the bereaved relatives my prayers and the prayers of all the people of Ireland. The people of Cork wish to be associated with that. Senator Doyle has summed up the message for us: we all have a responsibility. We must stand up not alone in the case of this incident but every incident that happens and make no apologies for letting our words go forth from places like this.

Mr. Lydon

I would like to extend my sympathy to the families of the people who were killed and hurt. Like Senator Robb I was at the same conference and when somebody said a bomb had gone off, I must admit we did not pay much attention because so many bombs have gone off but when the true horror became known, like Senator Cregan I felt it had happened just around the corner. I was shocked at the sheer carnage. There have been so many incidents of this type in Ireland in the past few decades and it is always the innocent who suffer; it is always the people who are standing around, or people who are having a meal in a restaurant like the Abercorn, or people who were attending a wedding at Le Mans, or people who were marching peacefully on Bloody Sunday, always the innocent. That is really what is so sad about it. I do not know where it will end but I suppose as long as Britain continues to occupy six of our counties of Ulster, that occupation will always spawn so-called freedom fighters whose avowed aim is to unite the country but whose methods will only serve to push us further apart.

For once I share Senator Robb's sentiment that they may, with this bomb, unite people rather than put them apart. For the first time ever I feel, and most of the people I talked to feel, there is a new awareness of the need to adopt peaceful means for reunification because that is the only way we can go.

I will end by saying how sad I am at what has happened. It is only when it touches home that it really hurts. I would also like to express my best wishes to the young detective whose wife works with me. If I knew what violence was like that morning before her husband was shot — I had coffee with her and she was in great form — the afternoon spelled a different picture. All of us in this House must fight in every way we can to stop these terrible tragedies occurring in whatever way that we can. Thank you.

Mr. B. Ryan

Beidh mé an-ghearr. Sinne go bhfuil baint againn le ceann den dá thraidisiún sa tír seo, tá sé de dhualgas againn anois athscrúdú a dhéanamh orainne agus ar na rudaí siúd go ndeirimid go seasaimid ar a son. Caithfimid scrúdú a dhéanamh istigh in ár gcroíthe go speisialta, ní faoi na rudaí poiblí a deirimid ach faoi na rudaí príobháideacha a cheapaimid, na rudaí a thagann amach as ár gcroíthe gan smaoineamh uaireanta nuair a tharlaíonn rud éigin, sa tslí is go ndéanaimid difríocht idir dhaoine a chaitheann culaith éadaigh áirithe agus daoine a chaitheann culaith éadaigh de shaghas éigin eile.

I think we should all of us from this tradition and from all traditions in this island, look very deeply into ourselves about the whole question of violence, not just this violence but all violence. We have to break a spiral that is threatening to engulf the world, a spiral of violence, a spiral of armaments, a spiral of hatred.

I do not believe there is any cause in this country which could justify what happened last Sunday. There is something else. Senator Robb — and I say this as one who values him as a close and dear friend — said something that Mr. Wilson said and somebody else said who has not been mentioned, a brother of Detective Garda O'Connor, on Sunday night on television. It is nearly as important that we be careful how we react as it is important that we condemn. Detective Garda O'Connor's brother can talk about his mother feeling for the families of those who perpetrated that awful attack and almost murder of her son.

Those of us who are at one remove, however we may feel, however outraged we may be quite justifiably, have an equal obligation to remember that if we begin to be brutalised by this sort of violence they have won a victory. We must not allow ourselves to be brutalised, we must respond with the capacity of a democratic society, with all the resources of a people who choose freely to respond but without the brutality those people invite from us and, many people will say — and I can understand why — deserve from us. What they deserve from us is the proof that we will not be made like them.

On another occasion, and the occasions are becoming all too frequent, I quoted Terence MacSwiney:

It is not those who can inflict the most who conquer; it is those who can endure the most.

What we must do is prove that not only can we endure but we can endure with our democratic values and with our Christian values intact. Nobody has taught us that lesson better than Gordon Wilson and the brother of Detective O'Connor. We have values inside in us, in ordinary people, and often ordinary people make politicians look quite small by their unthought out, spontaneous reaction of generous Christianity. That is what we badly need in our society now, the courage to say yes there are moral absolutes and these moral absolutes have been outraged by recent events, but, yes we are still bound by those same moral absolutes. When we respond and how we respond will be firm, vigorous and perpetual but it will not be their methods; it will be the methods of people who believe that civilisation is a worthwhile value. I associate myself with all the remarks of sympathy by my colleague.

Mr. Ross

There simply are no words I can add to those which have already been said in condemnation of what happened in Enniskillen. I should say that today I have felt some sense of hope because never before in my admittedly short six years career in the Seanad have I heard all sides of the House break into spontaneous applause in response to that great gesture of conciliation from Senator Robb.

I am encouraged by the obviously honest, sincere, unanimous response to what happened in Enniskillen. I hope we may act positively and unanimously in rooting out from our midst those responsible for this. I will not in any way try to introduce a measure of discord but maybe out of this we could remove the feeling of ambivalence, to which the garda on the programme on Sunday referred, towards the terrorists of this country. I echo the sentiments of Senator Norris when he said that surely we must in all honesty look at the activities of those who work under the guise of a political party to support the gunmen. These to me are one and the same people. These people should in honesty be looked at because this is not normal political activity. Those who purvey hate in our community, whether through literature which they freely distribute and sell, whether through bookshops, whether through phoney political parties, must be looked at. We must see whether these activities should be allowed any longer because they are destructive and supportive of the disaster that happened in Enniskillen at the weekend.

Mr. Doyle

As a result of a resolution passed by Dublin City Council last Monday a book of condolences is available for signing.

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

The House must agree that this is a very special and exceptional expression of sympathy and condolences. Senator Robb's gesture in presenting the Chair with a poppy is unprecedented but, in the special circumstances, it is totally in keeping with the spirit of the House in moving this expression of sympathy for this tragedy. I ask the House to stand for a moment in prayerful silence.

Mr. Robb

May I thank the House for this small gesture?

An Leas-Chathaoirleach

Many thanks.

Members rose in their places.