Dangerous forces of radicalisation - It’s time we recognised our real foes

When Susan Bro spoke at a memorial for her daughter, Heather Heyer, who was murdered by a right-wing extremist in Charlottesville just over a week ago, her powerful response resonated with families on this island who had lost a loved-one to bewildered extremism.

Bro’s refusal to speak with US president, Donald Trump, because of his response to the car killing, was, after all, just a version of Austin Stack’s campaign to get Sinn Féin, or their founding fathers, the IRA, to identify his father Brian’s 1983 murderers.

One call-out honours a child, the other a father, but the core principle is the same. Each is a brave reaction to the grief visited on a family by a minority so inculcated with hate and delusion that they feel free to challenge democracies, though they have no mandate of any kind.