Niall Ó Donnghaile (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I echo the remarks of sympathy and solidarity with the people of Manchester following the horrific tragedy inflicted upon the city and its people last night. If I can, I wish to reaffirm the remarks from Senators Norris, McDowell and Ó Ríordáin. In the words of the great Martin Luther King, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that".

I consider myself very proudly anti-fascist. I consider myself very active, where I can be, in that anti-fascism, whether fascism is manifested in the kind of awfulness we saw in the Manchester Arena last night or in some of the mistruths, horrible lies and distortions that are being spread, oftentimes deliberately. Even though we are somewhat distant from Manchester, we are connected by those bonds mentioned by Senator Conway-Walsh. As political leaders, we have a responsibility here in Ireland to be ever alert to that kind of hatred-spreading and to do our best, where we can, to face it down.

Last week I mentioned in the Seanad the Lá Dearg that was coming up in Belfast at the weekend. Much like Senator Warfield, I find it difficult to imagine we still await marriage equality legislation in the North despite a majority of MLAs being in its favour. We also wait for legislation that protects the rights of Irish language speakers and of those who want to live their lives through the medium of Irish.Similarly, the North is waiting for legislation to protect the rights of Irish-language speakers and those who want to live their lives through the medium of Irish. At the weekend, over 12,000 people, mostly families, students and young people from Gaelscoileanna, took over the streets of Belfast in a colourful, diverse and inclusive way. As I said last week, all the parties in these Houses and the Government have made it clear, as the UN and the EU council of experts have done, that rights-based legislation to protect the Irish language - an Irish-language Act - should be introduced in the North. I think all of us should redouble our efforts upon the conclusion of the upcoming Westminster election and the resumption of the talks to make sure outstanding issues like marriage equality and Acht na Gaeilge are resolved.