“It is the story of a vast superiority, sacrificed through stupidity, shortsightedness, and wanton insularity. It is a story of shamefully wasted talent, extraordinary complacency, and infinite self-deception.”

A murder trial jury has been told it has sat through one of the worst set of facts in relation to any murder in the history of the State.

HUGH McILVANNEY, the great Scottish sportswriter, sketched a scene for his readers of a Saturday afternoon in an Old Trafford press box which coughed out cigarette smoke.