Last Monday, The Courier was filled with reports about what a success the first concert at Slessor Gardens had been.
By the end of Monday night going to a concert in the UK had become a very different thing.
It’s not the first time a concert has been targeted by Islamic terrorists – the attack on the Bataclan in Paris was just 18 months ago – but the fact Ariana Grande’s audience is so young made Salman Abedi’s murders even more appalling, if it is possible to say such a thing.
Although there is always a rush for answers in the wake of these terrorist attacks, simple solutions or causes remain maddeningly elusive.
It’s not simply a case of immigration – the bomber was, although the son of a Libyan refugee, born in the UK as were three of the 7/7 bombers – nor is it possible to simply blame Islam itself.
There are billions of Muslims in the world and comparatively few terrorists. More pertinently, those that have made their homes in the west have done so for the same reason other immigrants do: for the chance of a better life for themselves and their families.
Similarly, the idea that the west’s foreign interventions are somehow responsible for a 22-year-old man blowing himself and 22 others up in the foyer of an Ariana Grande concert forgets that 9/11 occurred before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, or that ISIS is active in countries like Nigeria.
Instead, Donald Trump of all people got closest to the truth when he described the killer and his accomplices as “evil losers” because that’s exactly what they are.
They can dress it up in whatever revolutionary garb they like but ultimately these are people who, confronted with their own smallness in the face of the world, have chosen a path devoid of compassion or love of basic humanity. Where even something as inoffensive as an Ariana Grande concert threatens their rigid sense of self.
These are people whose imagination stretches no further than 15 minutes of infamy.
That’s why the Liz Hobbs Group, promoters of the Slessor Gardens gigs were right to say on Tuesday they would press ahead with their two other concerts this summer.
Music soundtracks our lives: it inspires, excites and consoles us through the up and downs.
For the fans of Ariana Grande or Little Mix, those acts represent their hopes and dreams on the first steps towards adulthood.
Killers like Salman Abedi have opted for a life of nihilism and fear instead. We must make sure we never do the same.
