Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We can understand the pain, panic and heartache on the streets of Manchester because we share so many cultural and social habits with the people of that city. It is almost a part of Ireland itself, which means we get it. It brings the trauma of what happened home. There are so many parents here in Ireland who would have dropped off their young teenage girls to the 3Arena in Dublin on Sunday to see Ariana Grande. To think that those people might not have come home is beyond shocking. It is horrific. My daughter would have been there had she not been doing her leaving certificate. However, it is no less horrific than the pain and torture felt by parents in Yemen, Syria and Iraq who have also lost children. Young lives have been ended and young lives have been traumatised for ever.

I do not agree that this is an attack on our values. It is a response to violence. Violence begets violence. In standing shoulder to shoulder with the parents and young people of Manchester, on behalf of Independents 4 Change I must state that the best thing we can do is support peace and neutrality as a way forward for the world. We want no part in what has gone on. That is the best we can do in the most horrendous of circumstances.

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