Ireland may be neutral, but it can help get Libya on the right road to freedom

PRAISE BE! It is unquestionably right to acknowledge the demise of one of the most weird and obnoxious dictators of recent decades.

For 42 years, Colonel Gaddafi subjected his country to personalised brutality and some of the weirdest dress sense of any political leader outside of the Marvel Universe. He also has, or had, the blood of many innocent Irish, British and American people on his hands through his sponsorship of the IRA and the Lockerbie bombers.

Although Gaddafi’s bizarre regime was running out of ideological steam long before the so-called Arab Spring, the fact that he has not been able to hand on the reins of power to one of his sons, as happened in North Korea and Syria, is a very good thing.