Irish Examiner View: The day the kindness died

Report makes recommendations following death of a terminally ill and immobile prisoner who was not allowed to take compassionate leave so he might die in a hospice.

The prisoner, who died in October 2018, was the second prisoner to die in those difficult circumstances in a cell at Portlaoise’s Midlands Prison. File image

American songwriter Don McLean almost built a career on one song: ‘American Pie’. 

Though not as ubiquitous at every pub singalong — remember them? — as it once was, some of its lines seem etched in our consciousness. “The day the music died” is one. Were he writing that song today McLean might rather write “the day that kindness died”.