When will enough mean enough?

FOR some people, human life has value for the same reason that gold has value — its worth is determined by the price someone is willing to pay for it.

Considering the almost daily catalogue of extreme violence in some of our cities, the price of human life in Ireland has gone through the floor.

It need not be this way. Even in the most extreme circumstances, the preciousness of life can prevail. In his book on the Holocaust, Martin Gilbert tells about a concentration camp prisoner who used to be a successful jeweller in Holland. The Nazis robbed him of his possessions, but he managed to smuggle a small amount of gold into the camp, hoping to survive and use it to rebuild his life.