A Friday evening in winter.
For many the end of the working week, in the city of Light.
Parisians got ready for the weekend.
Went home to pick up their children for the match, or met friends for a night out at Bataclan, or called into La Belle Equipe or le Petit Cambodge or Le Carillon, for a quick bite, a beer, a well-deserved pastis.
In 1307, almost to the month, the Knights Templar were arrested, interrogated, tortured, charged with heresy.
708 years on, in the particular blue, the cobalt, of an evening in Paris, ordinary yet extraordinary men and women, so many of them so young, paid with their lives, their futures, for another kind of ‘religious’ fear and loathing.
A fear and loathing that have nothing to do with any God, or any ‘faith’.
Its expression in Paris, and in other parts of Europe and the world, proof of the observations of Voltaire.
That those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
And it is on Boulevard de Voltaire,and on Rue Alibert, and on the Rue de Charonne and at the Stade de France,those absurdities and atrocities, changed not only the existence of 129 dead, and 352 injured, but of all of those who knew them and who loved them, who had given them a past, and had hoped to share a future.
They rendered a city, and a continent speechless.
Silence, perhaps, being the only adequate response, to something so crazed, so mutilating, so annihilating.
Silence, perhaps, being the only place in which we could find and re-establish our co-ordinates as human beings, sharing the same human condition, the same inhuman world.
On Friday, in the slipstream of young life, lived with such joy and love, came death.
Anathema, to families, futures, to the idea of a decent and civil and civilised society.
We think of them and their loved ones today and on behalf of the Government and people of Ireland I extend our deepest sympathies.
My thoughts are also with the hundreds of people who were injured in Friday’s attacks, many critically. This includes an Irish citizen, who is receiving assistance through our Embassy in Paris.
I also extend my sympathy to President Hollande and to the people of France, especially those of you who call Ireland your home. We recognise and share in your grief at this time. Yesterday along with others, I observed a minutes silence in respect of those who died at Cashins Printing Works in Castlebar – ordinary workers, ordinary people, and ordinary family members – just like those in Paris.
In January, I walked in Paris with President Hollande and other EU and world leaders after the devastating “Charlie Hebdo” attacks, I repeat now what I said then: we offer France our total solidarity and support.
The ties that bind our two countries are strong, long-standing and unwavering. Our shared democratic values and the shared way of life that we treasure will not bend in the face of terrorism.
We believe in respect and tolerance. Respect and tolerance are not weaknesses.
We remain resilient and we draw strength from our values and our way of life.
We believe in solidarity, togetherness and freedom.
These acts of violence are a betrayal of any sense of religion or goodness. And they are an absolute betrayal of the common humanity of man. This barbarity will not be allowed to triumph over civilisation.
These attacks must be seen for what they are – an attack on the fundamental values that are held dear, not only in France but in Ireland, throughout Europe and in the democratic world.
We remain steadfast and united in our determination to counter the threat posed by global terrorism and all forms of radicalism that have at their heart the desire and intention to divide, dismantle and destroy.
We are also clear that the terrible crimes of a small number of extremists, such as we have seen in Paris and indeed elsewhere, do not reflect the views of the Muslim community either in this country, or in other states and do not represent the honourable decent people who are going about their daily lives and who are equally appalled by Friday’s attacks.
We know, from our own experience, that this can be a difficult time for them.
Our response will be guided by the measures and priorities agreed by EU leaders earlier this year – measures to ensure the security of our citizens, to prevent radicalisation, to safeguard our values, and, most importantly, to bring the perpetrators of these terrible acts to justice.
In that regard, an emergency meeting of the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Ministers has been convened on Friday of this week. Minister Fitzgerald will represent Ireland at this meeting.
In formulating the international response, we must seek to tackle the root causes.
We must not allow this tragedy to deflect us in finding a balanced and humane approach, to work to find a solution in Syria, and to the migration crisis. We must continue to work for peace and stability in regions where fear and violence hold too much sway and to prevent radicalisation.
We need to share information more effectively and to deter and disrupt terrorist travel.
For our part, we will be vigilant here at home in working to ensure the safety and security of our citizens.
The sad reality is that, just like other democratic states, we in Ireland cannot consider ourselves immune from the threat posed by international terrorism and extremism.
An Garda Síochána are keeping the situation under constant review and all the agencies here co-operate closely in respect of any threats that are identified. They will also continue to work with their EU and other international security and intelligence counterparts in responding to these threats.
Our approach will of course continue to be based on international human rights principles and fully respect the rule of law.
We do this not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because these are precisely the values that were under attack last week.
The Heads of State and the leaders of the EU said in a Joint statement on Saturday “we stand united with the French people and the Government of France”.
This shameful act of terrorism will only achieve the opposite of its purpose, which was to divide, frighten, and sow hatred. I expect to have a further update and briefing from the Garda Commissioner and the Chief of Defence Forces later in the week.
Islam is a religion of peace. It is a religion of truth and kindness and compassion.
It is not a religion of hate, or violence or terror.
Those who murdered 129 people and injured 352 more, will never succeed.
In fact, with the love and solidarity shown all over the city of Paris, they are already defeated.
Voltaire wrote “that to the living we owe respect but to the dead we owe only the truth.”
That truth is our solidarity, our resolve, our refusal, to give in.
It is our belief in ourselves, in each other, that it is love, not hate, that will overcome.
Ends.