Archbishop denounces Dublin shootings as ‘despicable’

Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, has said that the perpetrators of the recent gangland murders in Dublin are “despicable and cynical exploiters who feel they can treat life lightly”.

In his strongest denunciation yet of violence in the city Dr Martin said, “the perpetrators are not idols or stars or heroes. They are criminals who threaten not just public order but democracy and the rule of law and who have no care for anything except their own criminal interests”.

Dr Martin said that premeditated shootings in public space, in the presence of terrified children and innocent people only degrades the humanity of those who do it.

“They fail to see that such inhumanity inevitably rebounds on its own perpetrators and never leaves them with the security they seek,” he said.

He also appealed in particular to the mothers and grandmothers of those involved to intervene.

“Are there some persons of wisdom, especially mothers and grandmothers who must fear that their children will be dragged even more deeply into this spiral, who see the madness of such violence and who can appeal to whatever humanity remains in the hearts of those involved? Every victim is some mother’s son and someone’s loved one and is tragically mourned by a family.”