EDITORIAL: Libraries are invaluable and should be protected

On Saturday, Cork City Library was forced to close over fear for staff and the public. Demonstrators who objected to certain books being in the library erected a banner across the library entrance and reportedly refused to remove it.

This is not the first time the Cork library has had issues. Earlier this month, there was a march in Cork City calling for protections for library staff. And this is not just a Cork problem.

In early July, a group of men who objected to a children’s event for Kingdom Pride pushed their way into Tralee Library shouting.

In April, demonstrators were allowed to enter a library in Swords Village objecting again to certain books. This is not an exercising of rights but the erosion of them.

Our libraries provide invaluable services, and the people that work in them are amazing. They shouldn’t be afraid to go to work. For some children and young people, libraries are safe havens. For adults it is one of the very few free and low cost places you can go and just be.

They are neutral spaces where all beliefs, politics, faiths and ideologies can exist peacefully. They are a space for the true democratisation of knowledge.

Those of us in the business of producing knowledge know that regardless of your opinions or beliefs, the public have a right to know. That goes for newspapers, research, books and all manner of educational and news media.

You have the right to know the facts and make up your own mind. So, demanding that books be banned in a library seems a particularly nasty thing to do.

You also have the right to protest. But protest is about empowerment and change, not harassment and intimidation. This is not a Cork, Kerry or Dublin problem. It is a far-right problem.

All of this is to say that when you see other newsrooms reporting on these incidents, one can’t help but think of their own towns and villages. And we pray we won’t have to do the same for our own communities.