Aylan’s image shifted something in the souls we forgot we had

We had one hell of an emotional response to the photographs of Aylan Kurdi, writes Terry Prone

IDON’T know if they still use candle-snuffers in churches, or even if that’s what they’re called, those pointy metal dunce’s caps sitting on the end of a long pole, that used to be lowered by an altar boy or girl over the tall candles when the mass or other ceremony was ended.

Silently, the pointed metal caps would be lowered and when they were raised back up, the straight small perfect flame would be quenched and replaced by a dark smoke curl like a grey snake. Within a few minutes, even that relic of the light was gone, and it was as if the candles had never been lit.