I know a man named Angel who spent 21 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. During his incarceration, both his mother and the mother of his children died and he exhausted all his appeals. He was fated to die in prison without any chance of parole.

Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh was born in Boston but raised in Shrule, Co Mayo.

The unprecedented financial crisis that has gripped the State since 2008 has required an equally unprecedented legislative response, but this has been accompanied by a raft of reforms that will prevent a future collapse, according to Brian Hayes, minister for State at the Department of Finance.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter insisted “there isn’t a row” between him and the judiciary and dismissed claims that communications between both sides had broken down as “bizarre”.

An increasingly bitter dispute between judges and the Government has been defused after the Chief Justice Susan Denham secured agreement on a new mediation system.