Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has reiterated his support for beleaguered library staff in Cork being harassed over LGBTQ+ books but has stopped short of agreeing with union demands for a more robust policing approach from gardaí to deal with the problem.
Mr Varadkar repeated a commitment he gave to Cork North Central Solidarity TD Mick Barry in the Dáil last week that the Government would continue to offer “support and solidarity to library staff here in Cork and indeed around the county, who are coming under pressure by activists to remove books.”
“I think that’s a very dangerous thing to see in any country that people want to take away books or burn books or remove knowledge. That’s not the kind of thing we want to see in our republic, and also no staff in any workplace should feel threatened or should be subjected to abuse or violence.”
Mr Varadkar said he intended to speak to the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys and the Minister for Local Government, Darragh O’Brien to see how the Government might enhance security for staff in libraries.
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On Friday over 500 people attended a rally in Cork organised by trade union Forsa calling on Cork City Council management to provide proper protection for library staff from being harassed by far right activists, who claim that LGBTQ+ literature for young adults in the library is pornographic.
Forsa Divisional Organiser Richy Carrothers welcomed Mr Varadkar’s expression of support last week for library staff but said that the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee should ask Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to adopt a more robust approach to policing the issue to protect library staff.
But Mr Varadkar said on Sunday in Cork that he would be slow to start telling An Garda Síiochana how to police the protests in libraries by agitators as gardaí had the expertise to judge each situation on its merits and decide on the best course of action to take in each individual case.
“Gardaí are the best people to judge a situation. You know, sometimes activists, whether they’re from the far right or the far left, they actually seek to provoke and they actually want the gardaí to arrest them, so that they can then accuse the gardaí of being heavy handed.
“You know, these people know what they’re doing – we’ve seen it on a number of occasions with far right and far left protesters and I think the guards are best placed to judge an individual circumstance how best to police it,” he added.
However, Labour Cllr John Maher, who has tabled a motion for Monday’s meeting of Cork City Council condemning the vigilantism, backed Mr Carrothers’ call for a more robust approach from An Garda Síochana to policing the issue in order to protect library staff.
Cllr Maher, who has tabled a motion for the meeting condemning the vigilantism of the far right, said gardaí do valuable and important work in Cork but more needs to be done to stop the sort of intimidation that is happening on a regular basis to library staff.
“If I put my fist up to someone’s face, it’s threatening behaviour and I can be prosecuted – yet somebody can put a phone in the face of a member of the library staff, film them without their consent and call them all the names they want and there seems to be no consequences,” he said.
