Fergus Finlay: We need to recognise the recent acts of hate for what they truly are

Libraries, and librarians, don’t just transform young lives. They offer shelter, comfort, warmth to older people, poorer people, lonely people

The Fórsa solidarity rally in support of Cork City Library staff who were subjected to abuse over LGBT+ books. Picture: Denis Minihane

You need a lot of hate in your heart to attack a library, or to destroy books. 

The Nazis set up student unions in the early 1930s, and encouraged a national campaign of burning books that were considered “un-German”. It was motivated by an ideology built on hatred of “the other”. Everyone knows where that hatred went in the end.