AS we are consumed — and left high and dry like a stranded ship — by the integrity of our own little quarrel, the world moves on apace.

The failure to elect a Taoiseach in the Dáil yesterday has turned a bizarre situation into a farce.

THE news that US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the Dublin-based multinational Allergan have scrapped their $160 billion merger may not be of immediate interest to most Irish people — but it should be.

THE office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) has, as it has done for many, many years, uncovered levels of performance in public institutions that are hardly acceptable much less exemplary. 

THE Panama Papers’ (PPs) shocking but, tragically, not really shocking revelation has had an immediate impact. Iceland’s prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has been forced to resign. Earlier yesterday, president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson rejected a request to dissolve the parliament and to call an election from Mr Gunnlaugsson.

SO many of the addictions that beset this society, ruining lives and breaking up families, are plain to see. An alcohol addiction or a cocaine habit can be concealed for only so long and the crisis will be all too apparent to those with eyes to see.