The deaths of 10 people at the Carrickmines Traveller halting site were awful. Dublin Castle will need to ensure what happened isn’t an echo of dispossession. If ever elected representatives and government agencies needed a reason to address deprived communities, then this is it.

US President-elect Barack Obama can, in the role of a centrist and as a friend and ally, appeal to those realists in Israel to return Israel to pre-1967 borders and reaccommodate the settlers there.