Christine Buckley, who died yesterday, was a lifelong campaigner for survivors of institutional abuse.

During the early stages of our economic crisis, one of those people so essential in any civilised society — those who can express hard truths with scathing humour — came up with the phrase: “implementation deficit disorder”.

Economist Morgan Kelly’s warning that the “real crisis” for the economy may lie ahead is chilling and deeply dispiriting.

Nearly every other day brings another damning report about the crisis eating at the heart of our health services.

This week the world will mark the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest, deepest, fastest, far-reaching, and evolving changes in how the world’s 7bn people live, and how we will live, for ever more.

Rehab executives have shown contempt for the idea of accountability, imagining themselves beyond the reach of Dáil committees, but any organisation that gets north of €80m a year from the exchequer cannot give two fingers to those ensuring public monies are used wisely.

No meaningful action has been taken to confront much less resolve the pensions’ crisis, betrayal and inequity facing hundreds of thousands of workers and their dependants.

There is a generation of Irish sports’ fans who have no idea what Irish rugby was like before Brian O’Driscoll. Lucky them.

The crisis in Ukraine and Crimea has reached such a critical point that patience, but not appeasement, must be the order of the day.

On Wednesday night, TV3’s Vincent Brown hosted one of the station’s periodic public debates. The motion was that “the Government deserves the confidence of the people”.