Sinéad Moriarty: 'Now stranger danger arrives at school gates'

Notebook

Gardai search Riversdale Community College in Blanchardstown following the shooting. Pic Steve Humphreys

Sinead Moriarty Twitter

April 05 2019 02:30 AM

Of all the things we worry about happening to our children in school, I doubt any of us ever thought they would be confronted with a shooting. That only happens in crazy America, right? Wrong.

On Tuesday, as the final bell was ringing at Riversdale Community College in west Dublin, a gunman began firing shots outside the school gate. Parents waiting to pick up their kids were terrified as a gunman discharged shots from a handgun.

The target was a man in his 20s who was waiting outside the school gates. Somehow the shooter missed, and the target didn't suffer any injuries.

Apparently, a local gang feud was the motive and thankfully no one was injured. But students and parents were traumatised by the incident. Guns at the school gate? That's only supposed to happen in "other countries".

Meanwhile, in leafy south Dublin, gardaí are investigating an alleged "suspicious approach" on a child outside a school this week.

The young girl was walking along a road in the Blackrock area with her grandmother following a few feet behind when a black car pulled up and a woman reached out to offer the child sweets. The woman urged the child to get into the car telling her she would bring her to her mummy.

In the back seat of the car there appeared to be a man crouching. The grandmother rushed over to protect the child and the car drove off.

Having just watched the Madeleine McCann documentary on Netflix, this sends shivers down my spine.

I remember having the stranger danger conversation with my kids. I gave them the whole, "never get into a car with a stranger no matter what they offer you" speech. There was a pause and my then seven-year old said: "But what if they offered me a Curly Wurly?"

God save us from the Church's book burners...

Who knew Harry Potter carried "evil forces"? Wasn't that Voldemort's job? A Catholic priest in Poland led a public burning of the Harry Potter books.

It took place on Sunday outside a Catholic church in Gdansk. It seems the priest, Rafal Jarosiewicz, was more than happy to boast about his literary bonfire. He uploaded images from the burning on the Facebook page of a foundation he founded.

Jarosiewicz and other priests who follow his "unusual" methods said they encouraged parishioners to bring in things that disturbed them, so the priests could burn the evil influences.

He and some of his Catholic faithful and priests think the Harry Potter books promote sorcery.

God save us all.

...and thank God for Greta's climate protest

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The amazing thing about Greta is that she is only 16 and on the autism spectrum. If you haven't seen her TED talk on YouTube, I urge you to watch it.

She comes on stage looking much younger than her years, in two plaits and then proceeds to blow the audience away. She also gives the talk in flawless English. This young girl is incredible. She was named one of 'Time' magazine's most influential teens of 2019. When she was just 15, Thunberg started to skip school every Friday to protest about climate change outside Sweden's parliament.

In August 2018, she caught the media's attention by starting the first school strike for climate, outside the Swedish parliament building. The global climate strike on Friday, March 15 which saw thousands of Irish students take to the street was inspired by Thunberg's #FridaysForFuture students' movement.