Michael D Higgins tells Bloomsday gathering those who intimidate library staff and tear up books ‘must be called out’
Revellers with copies of Ulysses at the Bloomsday Breakfast at Belvedere College in Dublin on Sunday. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
He said libraries were increasingly special places, “one of the last remaining public spaces to have been spared commodification, where there is no requirement to spend money or purchase anything in order to spend time or be welcomed there”, while their staff “created an atmosphere so conducive for intellectual curiosity for generations of Irish children, women and men”.
“The destruction of books must always be called out as an outrageous act,” said President Higgins, who was speaking at an event hosted each year to celebrate James Joyce, his novel Ulysses and those who celebrate it.
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