Don’t let terror attacks crush the dreams of our children

We cannot address the physical impact of such an act of terror but we can manage the psychological impacts, writes Paul Gilligan.

BY ITS nature, the horrendous act of terrorism in Manchester will have the greatest emotional effect on teenagers. They will relate to being at a concert and the fear, chaos, and devastation an act like this would create. They will empathise fully with the young people killed or injured, feel the fear of the premature robbing of their lives and the wonder about the effects such injuries would have on their dreams and aspirations.

Making the awfulness more apparent will be the fact that Ariana Grande played a concert here last weekend to an audience consisting mainly of first, second, and third-year secondary school students. The realisation that many of those killed and injured, like those attending the gig in Dublin, would have been attending their first concert, will add significantly to the distress felt.