Confronting terrorism - Open the door

That US secretary of state John Kerry’s Davos call for an international plan to confront the roots of terrorism came as Japan faced the fact that Islamic State terrorists murdered a Japanese hostage; that Boko Haram attacked Nigeria’s major north-eastern city of Maiduguri, and as Spanish police arrested four people suspected of belonging to a militant Islamic network underlines the urgency around the proposal.

Though Ireland is just a bit player on the international stage, we have always asserted, justifiably or not, a moral authority.

All this week, and all round the world, ceremonies will be held to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation, if you can ever be liberated from horror on that scale, of Auschwitz. Our refusal to accept European — Jewish — refugees and help them avoid Auschwitz or other death camps 70 years ago is one of the enduring and most shameful episodes in our history.