“We feel at home while being with the Irish”.
In the aftermath of the atrocities in Paris which left 128 people dead and over 200 injured, the French Ambassador to Ireland Jean-Pierre Thébault has thanked the Irish people.
Speaking on TV3’s Sunday: AM, Mr Thébault said how the French people in Ireland feel lucky to be here.
“The French in Ireland are telling me ‘we are lucky to be in Ireland’. We are lucky because we are in the community, because the community is taking care of us and because we feel at home while being with the Irish,” Mr Thébault said.
“I remember, we all remember, the way Ireland and the Irish supported France for Charlie, now even more.”
“I want to really thank the Irish public, the individuals, the normal citizens but also the government in Ireland who have expressed such strong support for France and its citizens. This matters. It is a message sent to the terrorists. You will not win. You will be defeated because we stand in unison.”
His praise comes after it was announced that books of condolences would be opening in Ireland tomorrow in Limerick, Clare, Dublin and Cork.
You can also sign the book of condolences online on limerick.ie from 10am tomorrow or you can email your message of condolence to the French embassy in Dublin.
Speaking of President Hollande promise that the French would fight back, Ambassador Thébault had the following reply.
“We have a firm resolve, a firm resolve to fight them back. Because what those terrorists are representing is not only a threat to our values, to our daily lives, and not only the ones of French, also the ones of all of us, but also they want to expand, they want to increase their power.”
He finished by stating, “What we are contemplating today is, if we don’t react, one day maybe they will be even stronger and even more threatening for us.”
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