Independent Ireland Chairperson Statement on the murder of Charlie Kirk

Today, following the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk, America has lost one of the brightest stars of its conservative intellectual movement.

A family has been left bereft following the loss of its husband and adoring father. An international community of friends and supporters are broken in their disbelief and sadness that such an event could come to pass.

I know that Charlie had thousands of admirers here in Ireland. I count myself as one of them. His courage, intellectual fearlessness, openness to robust and critical dialogue and his unrelenting tenacity in seeking to re-ground our cultures in foundational and self-evident truths made him a beacon for millions.

His savage and untimely death must be the catalyst for a renewed emphasis on combating political violence and the self-justifying rhetoric of those who would kill a man merely because he had the temerity to disagree with them.

My sympathy, my prayers and go out to Charlie and his family.

“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”
—George Orwell