Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday I had the pleasure of standing with diplomats and the ambassador for a minute's silence at the embassy. As I did on that occasion, I join with all contributors in the House today in extending condolences to the people of France.

As I listened to the news as the horror unfolded I asked myself, "How can human beings be so inhumane to their fellow man?" That the people attending the rock concert were, according to reports, told, "Look in my eyes and die" causes one to wonder to what type of inhumanity and brutality can man descend. I then began to wonder if we on this side of the world could produce people like this and was reminded of the vicious hatred in Ireland when loyalists in Northern Ireland in two co-ordinated gun attacks on 4 January 1976 murdered six Catholics in cold blood, which later became known as the Reavey and O'Dowd killings. This made me think about whether men in this country could look a person in the eye and kill that person because of his or her religion. I then recalled the Kingsmill massacre on 5 January 1976 in which 12 workers travelling home after a day's work in a mini-bus were stopped, taken out of the mini-bus and lined up against it, following which 11 of them were then shot by IRA thugs and murderers because they were Protestants. One man escaped being killed because he was a Catholic.

The question that we must ask ourselves is: "Are there lessons in terms of what is happening in the world today for Ireland?" The answer is, yes, there are lessons to be learned and we need to learn them quickly. I would like at this point to read into the record the sentiments expressed by John Lennon, of whom many of us were fans, in the song "Imagine".

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people living life in peace,

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope some day you'll join us

And the world will be as one.....

They are very important sentiments as expressed in the 1960s that are worth repeating today.

I concur with the expressions of contempt and despair in regard to the sentiments expressed by Republicans in the United States of America, which were similar to those expressed by certain countries in Europe, not least Hungary, namely, that the victims of the war in Syria, who are escaping to save their lives, should be segregated into Christian or Muslim refugees. I congratulate the fine sentiments as expressed by the American President when he said, "We do not have religious tests for our compassion".

It is a sentiment that should be applied internationally. There are forces at play whose view on whether a person should be given sanctuary depends on his or her religion. That is a most reprehensible, vulgar and dangerous attitude. We cannot allow Republicans in the United States, Marine Le Pen in France or any other leader in Europe or elsewhere to use the horror of the Paris attacks as an excuse to select on the basis of religion who of the people fleeing war and hunger should be afforded refuge. We must not allow people to be denied sanctuary on the basis of religious discrimination which prioritises Christians. That would be repugnant. We must fight the ultra right-wing forces at play in the United States and across Europe, from Hungary to France and every other country that produces such sectarian religious bigots.

We in Ireland must play our part to safeguard the rights of those who are living in the horror camps on the borders of Lebanon. As I understand it, some of the programme refugees coming to this country will be from these camps. We do not have a Molenbeek or Gennevilliers in Ireland we must intensify our resolve never to allow any minority to be ghettoised in such fashion. In the past five years we have given Irish citizenship to approximately 40,000 people from some 120 countries, people from a range of cultures, who speak different languages and have diverse religious beliefs. There is now that diversity in our capital city and country. The Taoiseach said that we must tackle the root causes of terrorist attacks and ask ourselves to what degree religion acted as one of the causes. I take the opportunity to congratulate Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on the incredibly progressive comments he made recently on the position of the Catholic Church in Ireland. He said: "The church must change not to go along with society and neither to opt out of society but to find the best space possible to be free and unencumbered to bring the challenging messages of Jesus Christ to society". He went on to say: "The church must free itself and become unencumbered even from positions which may in the past have been positive and useful to both church and society, including in the control of schools and institutions". If we are serious about our democracy, we must no longer allow a baptismal certificate to be a badge of entry to schools. We have a diverse population, including, as I said, 40,000 new Irish citizens in the past five years. It is improper, repulsive and reprehensible that people who are not from the Catholic tradition may not be able to find a school place for their children. I applaud the religious orders such as the Presentation Sisters in Warrenmount, the Loreto Sisters in Crumlin and the nuns in Basin Lane whose schools have accommodated great cultural diversity. It is incredible how many Muslim children are attending these schools and they are a shining example to the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy. Their example has shown that accepting non-Irish students in significant numbers is not a threat to a school. We should be strong in our support for the archbishop's call for a more open policy of admittance to schools.

Of course, we in Ireland have an example of conflict on our doorstep. In Northern Ireland it was two Christian groups, Catholics and Protestants, which engaged in mutual slaughter. While religion was not the only basis for the conflict, it played a very important role and reference is constantly made to the need for greater integration of Catholic and Protestant children from an early age. Why are schoolchildren segregated when school is the most natural place to facilitate mixing between different nationalities and cultures? It is the way forward for a modern society to embrace that integration. We must keep that lesson in mind in considering the challenge highlighted by the Taoiseach of tackling the root causes of terrorism. Religion is not necessarily the root cause, but it probably is one of the causes. Why do most Muslim children in this city go to school in Clonskeagh? Why do Catholics attend the local Catholic school, while Protestants opt for places in schools such as the High School in Rathgar, for example? Why do Jewish children attend Stratford College? If this is really a modern democracy, the State which is funding the education system should be able to accommodate children of all religions.

The people of Rialto and Marrowbone Lane consider it a privilege to have accommodated in their communities Muslims who do not have a mosque to use local facilities to celebrate Ramadan and other occasions. It has been an important lesson in intercultural and inter-religious understanding for inner-city people. We must fight everybody who obstructs such integration or target Muslims as their enemy. It is a credit to the people involved in the South West Inner City Network that they intend to recognise a local imam next Thursday in their annual youth, community and lifetime achievement awards. We must not allow any right-wing fascist to disrupt the developing community interaction that is occurring in the city.

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