IF Garda Sgt Maurice McCabe had been a docile, compliant and fearful member of An Garda Síochána, his complaints about malpractice within the force would never have come to light. It was his resilience, courage and, above all, his turbulent persistence that assured his observations gained the oxygen of publicity required to expose shortcomings within the organisation.

Whistleblower site WikiLeaks has put hundreds of thousands of emails and documents from last year’s crippling cyber-attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment into a search-able online archive.