Innocence is dead in a country that’s rapidly going off its trolley

WHEN I was just four years old my mother brought my younger brother and me to this country.

"The kids are grand, thank God," she wrote to her sister in New York. "They sure love it here. Really it is amazing how independent they are and go off by themselves. The only time I ever look for them is at meal time, and usually they turn up by themselves for it."

That Ireland has gone for some time, but it was well and truly buried this week. We really need to take stock of where we are going.