Now that the dust has settled after Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s take-no-prisoners Dáil speech, now that all of the tribal indignation and spleen have been vented, the central issues remain unresolved.

Time and distance make it somewhat easier to accept this island’s difficult past, at least for those lucky enough not to have to endure the atrocities of terrorists’ of all hues.

In politics, perception is everything.

Coupled with the decimation of local Garda stations, the threat of closure hanging over hundreds of post offices represents a potential body blow to what remains of the once rich but now sadly decaying fabric of rural Ireland.

The issues raised by Chief Justice Susan Denham when she warned that some of the best candidates for the bench might not wish to become judges because High Court pay levels have become relatively unattractive, echoes a dilemma having an impact right across society.

The goalposts have been moved every day since the story about spying at the GSOC offices broke.

The right to free speech is a fundamental protection offered by our society even if it sometimes means that people with odious views, Holocaust deniers, or homophobes, must be afforded an opportunity to air them.

Reforming and then sustaining public-health systems has become one of the greatest challenges facing governments across the western world.

The greatest enemy a besieged city, a disdainful, ring-fenced establishment or a past-his-sell-by-date tyrant face — as the ousted and fugitive Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich will confirm — is time.

Modern medicine has found many ways to turn what might once have been a tragedy into something if not quite a victory then something uplifting, something defying and utterly of the human spirit.