When homeless man Jonathan Corrie died in a doorway in freezing conditions last month, close to the entrance of Dáil Éireann in Dublin, it provoked days of outrage and soul-searching about homelessness and the consequences of homelessness. 

It is nearly 17 years since terrorist zealots as evil — and as utterly wrong — as those who brought carnage to the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris on Wednesday inflicted an atrocity of similar scale, impact and immorality on the people of Omagh.

Even the prospect of a new generation of antibiotics must be a cause for celebration.

It has become something of a cliché to say that Ireland’s greatest natural resource is its young people.

Yesterday’s deadly attack on the offices of a Paris magazine exposes not just the horrors of extreme religious fundamentalism but the paucity of moderate Islamic voices.

The State has reportedly begun the process of seeking to extradite David Drumm from the US to face criminal charges here.

The Irish Farmers’ Association, which marked the 60th anniversary of its foundation yesterday, has been one of the most successful lobby groups in the history of this State.

By any criteria, it is a terrible indictment of us all, especially our recurring, seemingly irredeemable inability to properly manage our public affairs, that at one point yesterday, for the first time ever, more than 600 people were on trolleys in hospital accident and emergency wards.

It is a cause for concern that work-related deaths were up by almost a fifth last year, rising by 17% from 47 to 55.

The evidence, the damning evidence, that we have not properly planned for well-flagged developments is all around us.