Even in a post-truth, post-shame world, even in a world where alternative facts are trotted out as regularly as “unprecedented” October storms threaten homes and property, the conclusion reached by Mr Justice Peter Charleton that, despite his repeated denials, former garda commissioner Martin Callinan told a Dáil deputy in early 2014 that whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe had sexually abused his family is deeply shocking. The allegation, and that is a very generous use of vocabulary, was of course false.