Even a casual perusal of this newspaper in recent days reveals an alarming picture of wanton violence and lost lives matched, it seems, by an equally dangerous detachment on the part of all but the victims and families involved.
Admittedly, the suspension of the bulk of the three-year sentences imposed earlier this week on two men for an assault on Barry Duggan - in Grafton Street in 2003 - prompted some public debate. But there are worrying signs of a reduction in the extent to which violence is registering in the public psyche. We appear to be growing inured to the phenomenon or, worse, appear willing to accept that it constitutes the norm within a modern society.
Mr Duggan spent three weeks in an induced coma after sustaining a broken jaw and eye socket, as well as fractures to his head and skull, when he was attacked by Stephen Nugent and Dermot Cooper. The more recent fate of others has been worse. Teenager Darren Coughlan died in Limerick on Tuesday after being attacked by a gang who beat him about the head as he lay on the ground. Father-of-two John Cunningham (26) died in Dublin on Sunday after being beaten and stabbed with a snooker cue and a long-bladed knife. Owen McCarthy (22), from Clondalkin in Dublin, was found murdered in Co Wicklow last Friday. A small-time drug runner, he was the target of previous attacks in which, in one instance, his legs were broken, and in another a shot was fired, injuring a bystander. A week earlier, the body of David Nunan was discovered with gunshot wounds in the village of Parteen in Co Limerick.
Other incidents demonstrate a sinister casualness and randomness in the use of violence which will come as little surprise to anyone familiar with the scenes outside many pubs and nightclubs at closing time or, indeed, with day-to-day proceedings in our courts. On Monday, for instance, a Circuit Court judge in Co Meath heard how a man suffered potentially fatal injuries when he was stabbed with a glass bottle by two other men he did not know. And Tullamore District Court was told last week that an Offaly Gaelic footballer kicked an opposing player in the head as he was lying on the ground.
True, Ireland remains relatively safe. The rate of crime - including offences involving violence - is low by international standards. However, in a speech earlier this week, President Mary McAleese identified the risk of individualism in the context of the current choices facing Irish society. In our response to crime, individualism is not a realistic option. We must pay attention before we are directly affected. There is no room for indifference.