Irish Examiner view: A neighbourly system required

Body found in Mallow

Flowers left outside the boarded-up vacant house on Beecher Street, Mallow, where the body of Tim O'Sullivan was discovered. Picture: Dan Linehan

The discovery of a body which had lain undiscovered for 20 years in a house in Mallow should be a watershed moment for the country as a whole.

Even if one makes allowances for society becoming more insular, and for communities becoming less unified than in previous generations, it remains shocking that a person might disappear from sight and not be discovered for decades — even though their dwelling-place was in a large town.