Professor Tarlach McGonagle:

I thank Mr. Dooley and Ms Evans for their eloquent contributions. I am not sure that you can get justice at a personal level, as Mr. Dooley mentioned. However, I recently read American Mother by Diane Foley and Colum McCann. It is a very powerful account of how Diane Foley dealt with the trauma of losing her son, James, at the hands of IS. There can be seen her need for truth telling, to hear what happened and to try to engage with one of the killers of her son. You see the power of her individual character to turn it around and try to do something for other journalists who are in captivity and who have been taken hostage around the globe. It is something very personal.

If I may tie it to Deputy O'Sullivan's very powerful intervention and this issue of the culture of impunity, in a very perverse way, as Deputy O'Sullivan mentioned, if the perpetrators of attacks on and murders of journalists get away with it, they and others are emboldened. This is what we absolutely must try to stop as a matter of urgency. That is why things like the Council of Europe recommendation CM/Rec(2016)4 and many other important international initiatives are doubling down on the need to eradicate impunity because that is toxic at a systemic level.