I want to raise the issue of Catalonia. I mentioned it briefly during our debate on Europe Day last week. I want to bring to the attention of the House the fact that there have been systematic attacks on different layers of Catalonian society. To date, nine politicians have been jailed. There are no dates for trial. Effectively, they are being interned. A total of 900 mayors are being investigated for facilitating the referendum last year. Former officials of the Catalan Government have been charged with misuse of funds simply for inviting people - diplomats - to visit Catalonia, which is something that has gone on for years. Civil rights groups are under attack for giving out information. For handing out leaflets, they have been charged with hate speech and hate crimes. Teachers are being prosecuted for hate crimes. Their crime was to facilitate debate in schools. Simply to facilitate a debate is now a crime in Catalonia. The firemen who courageously defended people when they were voting are being charged. They were standing in the way of police who were trying to batter people at the time. They are being charged with hate crimes. The colour yellow has effectively been banned in Catalonia. At the Copa del Rey final involving Barcelona a few weeks ago, yellow T-shirts - no slogans just yellow in colour - were taken off the people wearing them. The speaker of the Catalonian Parliament has been arrested for facilitating a debate in the Chamber. What we have, right here in Europe, is effectively the most horrendous authoritarian clampdown on civil rights, even on freedom of speech.

I wish to request a debate on this matter. One does not have to be in favour of Catalan independence - I certainly am and I make no apologies for it - to recognise that something fundamentally wrong is happening in Catalonia right now. There is an horrendous clampdown on civil rights. I do not think any of us should be willing to countenance the wall of silence that has been built up in respect of this matter. We need to speak out strongly. I ask for a debate on this issue.

I was on a Good Friday Agreement tour to Capitol Hill last week with the Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, Deputy Crowe. We raised many issues regarding the agreement. We wanted to thank the US people and political establishment for the work they did on the Good Friday Agreement. After 20 years, we wanted to renew the agreement. Many issues were raised, such as the undocumented Irish and looking for answers to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, on which we feel there are not enough answers. There is one aspect which I feel we have allowed to happen. Last weekend in Donegal, a hotel was going to have a function to celebrate the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle but it cannot now do so because thugs who call themselves republicans rang up and intimidated the hotel in order to stop the function going ahead. What would happen if someone had a pub in London that was going to air the presidential inauguration and somebody rang in to stop that? There would be hell to pay. We have a different view and nobody has said anything. The only person whom I have heard say something is a DUP councillor in the North of Ireland. It is a two-way street here. How can people ring a hotel in our Twenty-six Counties and get an event at which people were going to go to watch the royal wedding cancelled? I will not be watching the royal wedding but many people out there will. It is people's right to watch the wedding in the same way as it is their right to watch anything. In case anybody asks, I was not invited to the royal wedding.

There is still time.

Sinn Féin, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil should come out-----

Senator Pádraig Mac Lochlainn spoke out against it yesterday.

That is good. All parties should absolutely condemn this behaviour. If it carries on, we will not be able to do anything. We must stand up to these faceless thugs. I write about the Commonwealth and I get these keyboard warriors typing messages to me morning, noon and night. The more they abuse me, the more delighted I am. For the 25 who take the time to write abuse, I have received about 500 likes. As politicians, we must stand up for all aspects. There are no votes for me in Roscommon, Leitrim or wherever in defending a royal wedding, but it is the right thing to do. We must stand firm.