Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As with everyone here, our hearts go out to the families in Manchester and their shattered lives. The sense is it was an evil and calculated act. It was calculated in the way it deliberately targeted the most innocent and vulnerable to try to provoke the strongest response. Sometimes when humanity shows us its most evil, in its most hard to comprehend ways, it sees in return the best in human nature. Our hearts and minds are with the ambulance drivers who queued along the streets of Manchester last night to go to the scene. Our hearts and thoughts are with the taxi drivers who brought the other young people home. In Britain's recent history, its strongest identity in response to bombing is in the spirit of the Blitz. This attack has all the hallmarks of an ISIS attack. We met the Coptic Pope recently. It is remarkably similar to the attack in the Coptic cathedral in Egypt. The same numbers of people were killed and the same mechanism was used. There was the same targeting of young, innocent children. All we can hope for is that, in response, the British people turn away from what the bombers are looking for, which is to instil hatred and division, and instead are inspired with a sense that violence can never win. We stand for peace and we achieve it through solidarity, tolerance and democratic systems. Meanwhile, our heart bleeds for those shattered families in Manchester today.

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