Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has pledged the Government’s support to library staff who are being harassed and intimidated by right-wing protesters objecting to LGBTQ+ literature in public libraries across the country.
“I want to express my solidarity with the library service and the people who work in libraries – this is not a country that bans books because people don’t agree with the content of them, and places that ban books, shortly after that they start burning books and sometimes burning people.
“That’s not a road we are going to go down as a country ... It is important that we make sure librarians are supported in their job and feel safe in their jobs, and that is what the Government is committed to,” Mr Varadkar told Cork North-Central Solidarity TD Mick Barry in the Dáil.
Mr Barry had raised the plight of Cork City Library staff who have been subjected to repeated harassment by a small group of right-wing protesters, who have accused them of being paedophiles because of the library’s policy of making LGBTQ+ books for young people available on their shelves.
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“As you know, library workers have been subjected to a campaign of harassment and intimidation in recent months by far-right activists objecting to books on LGBTQ+ sexuality – nowhere has this been more the case than in Cork city,” said Mr Barry when he raised the issue in the Dáil on Wednesday.
Mr Barry said trade union, Forsa, which represents Cork City Library staff, has organised a march on Friday from Central Library on the Grand Parade to Cork City Hall to highlight the issue, and he urged people to show solidarity with library staff and the LGBTQ+ community by joining the march.
“Cork City Council have a legal responsibility to put far better protections in place for library staff. I will be standing with these workers on Friday, and I would appeal to people who work in the city to come down and support them on their lunch breaks,” he said.
Cork South-Central Sinn Féin TD Donnachadh Ó Laoghaire told The Irish Times: “The intimidation of library staff is totally unacceptable – if people have issues in relation to the material available in the library, they can take it up with the local authority or national Government – it’s really not right that ordinary library workers should be intimidated going about their work.”
Fine Gael Cathaoirleach of the Seanad Jerry Buttimer also backed Friday’s protest by library staff, and he urged Cork City Council “to reflect on the matter”.
“I think it’s important that we support the library staff who are simply doing their job – the incursion into their workspace is unacceptable and we cannot allow a small vocal minority to dominate what happens in our public libraries,” he said.
The Forsa rally begins at the Central Library on the Grand Parade at 12.30pm on Friday.
