After the tears we must act to fight this evil

OUR shocked and sickened minds struggle to know what to think about yet another mass murder of innocents, this time in Spain. But to reassure and strengthen ourselves, we still need, as always, to say what must be said.

To those who mourn, we share your grief. To the twisted people who dare to excuse or incite such horrors, we despise your cruel and heartless spite, and we contrast our free, happy, European way of life, which is all too easy to attack, with the dark repressed misery you seek to impose on us.

But we must also admit the failings of our precautions. We have now seen enough of these vehicle murders to know that the rapid installation of bollards and barriers in vulnerable places – especially on internationally famous streets such as Las Ramblas – cannot wait. Nor can we in Ireland wait any longer for a national strategy to combat terrorism before it strikes here. Our surveillance of potential killers has not been good enough. We simply do not know enough about potential jihadis based here, and rely too heavily on intelligence from our European neighbours.

The giants of social media, almost all of which have their European HQs in Dublin, have yet to grasp how much responsibility they carry. They need to co-operate more willingly with security services in the struggle to detect murder plots before they come to fruition, and to uncover communications between terror suspects.

Total security is never possible. We can, however, be safer.

The world’s grief and anger over Barcelona will not be wasted if it leads to more serious and effective measures against these homicidal fanatics. The resources of civilisation are not yet exhausted.