Even though the World Health Organisation declared the West African ebola epidemic out of control several days ago the news that a man is being tested for the virus in an Athens hospital moves the crisis closer to home.

Anyone who reads Alex Renton’s piece this morning (Deep End: What rapid changes means for our seas, pages 13, 14 and 15) cannot but be concerned about the destruction he describes; anyone who reads the piece and thinks about how we reached this dangerous point and how little we are doing to reverse the unfolding apocalypse — not by any means too strong a phrase — cannot but be frightened and angry.

In recent weeks there has been great, assured talk about imposing game-changing sanctions to bring Russian paramilitary proxies in Ukraine to heel. There were similar if far louder suggestions about how commercial or moral pressure might be exerted on Israel to end the atrocious bombardment of the captive population of Gaza.

Former taoiseach John Bruton has indeed stirred a hornet’s nest with his suggestion that the 1916 Rising was a mistake and a pointless waste of lives.

As any marketing executive worth their iPad will tell you the best way to influence parents is to enlist their children as agitators for whatever cause you’re paid to advance.

In a darkening world, depressingly beset by violence, it was heartening yesterday to celebrate two spectacular events which reflect the best of everything Irish — the 141st Dublin Horse Show and the astonishingly successful rendezvous between a comet and Rosetta, a European built space probe following its ten year, 6.4bn-kilometre journey around the solar system.

By doing what no senior Irish team has ever done before, the sensational victory of Ireland’s women rugby players over virtually unbeatable New Zealand has thrown down a gauntlet to their male counterparts in the green jersey.

Traditionally, suicide has been swept under the carpet in this country.

Speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday afternoon nurses’ union leader Liam Doran said that a universal health system is the mark of a civilised society and, in the most general terms, it is very easy to agree with him and share his noble ambition.

One of the most persistent and beneficial aspects of our relationship with the EU has been the opportunity membership offers citizens who believe they have been denied their rights by our Government or by our courts to seek redress, or at least a hearing.