Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to express my condolences to the families and loved ones of everyone who lost their lives in Paris as a result of the attacks last Friday night and to those who since succumbed to their injuries. I also send my well-wishes to all who were injured or traumatised by these despicable and brutal attacks. I hope for their recovery and that they might be able to return to their lives and pick up the pieces. The French people are no doubt strong people, who have endured fascism previously and survived and will do so again. All of us were shocked by the terrible scenes we saw unfold on our television screens on streets, which are familiar to many of us. In a city not far from here it all seemed very close to home. Many of us knew people who were in Paris that night or who have made it their home and we thought of them. It was impossible not to think of friends and families who were out that night to socialise, to drink, to eat, to attend a music show or even a football match. While it is human nature to connect through one's experience and what one knows, for us it is but a short, flickering and terrible glimpse of the life of many people around the world who endure the barbarism of ISIS and its ilk on their streets or across the parapet of a moving frontier.

Paris joins a long line, unfortunately, of places where people have first-hand experience of the carnage and indiscriminate murder ISIS brings with it. Members are also aware of the awful attacks in Beirut, which happened the night before the events in Paris. There, 43 people were killed by two ISIS suicide bombers motivated by nothing other than a hatred for humanity. A further 239 people were left injured, many with debilitating wounds which will haunt their lives. In Baghdad on Friday morning, 18 more lives were taken by this group, which also shot a Russian aeroplane out of the sky this month, killing everyone on board. However, these killings happened far away and in places where perhaps we have become far too willing to accept such things.

Many will claim that ISIS has attacked the West but in fact it has attacked all of humanity and has been doing so since its inception. We are now forced to not turn away because ISIS will not turn away. It will not remain in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt or Turkey. Its aim in the attack on Paris is clear, it is to foment hatred among us, to put Europe on the back foot and to create distrust and anger against the refugees who have fled ISIS and against the Muslim communities in our country. Europe must respond with humanity for the victims of ISIS who have risked everything to make it to our shores. These are victims who have thrown themselves upon the mercy of Europe and the ideals with which it is now claimed ISIS is at war. These ideals, if they are genuine, have never been so important and must be cherished and built upon. The vast majority of Muslims are completely opposed to ISIS, which is as much their enemy as it is ours.

I also wish to express my solidarity with the activists of the People's Democratic Party of Turkey, the HDP, who have lost 37 comrades in bombings at their rallies since June. These attacks were orchestrated by ISIS and permitted by a Turkish Government intent on using ISIS to consolidate power and defeat the Kurdish people. The HDP has defended the right of the Kurdish people to defend themselves and championed their fight against ISIS. Brave and dedicated Kurdish people in the YPG and other groups fight ISIS on the ground. They are giving their lives every day to defeat fascism. They deserve our solidarity, as do those who have travelled across the world to aid the fight against ISIS.

Many have died but their comrades fight on. They fight for the existence of their people in the face of what can only be described as evil. They also offer the people of that region a progressive, tolerant and fair way forward.

Again, I offer my condolences to the victims of ISIS in Paris and elsewhere. In the words of the French anti-fascist movement: "Ni oubli, Ni pardon; Never forgive, Never forget".

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