Séamas O'Reilly: Appeasing the far-right won't placate them — they'll just want the next cruelty

Their concerns are not about society, the economy or public safety, they’re an ever-moving target of fear and hatred that cannot be sated, it has to be challenged. 

Séamas O'Reilly. Picture: Orfhlaith Whelan

I studied German in school and there was nothing I enjoyed better than the oral essays; a speech I could prepare in advance so my grammar and syntax wouldn’t be so obviously terrible, delivered on pre-agreed themes like German history or culture. 

The only one that’s ever stuck with me was on the history of Fanta, the popular fizzy orange drink, invented in Nazi Germany.