And to learn that this is, in part, because we have no centralised way of tracking and dealing with the root causes, as reported in yesterday’s edition, speaks to wider issues in governance that the citizens of this country seem to constantly run up against.

So it is welcome that yesterday brought the announcement of a pilot project to record children’s deaths, a project by Child Health Ireland and University of Limerick that should get under way within weeks. 

As our health correspondent Niamh Griffin reports: “This tool will make recording deaths faster. It could allow doctors to see trends including across infectious diseases, car accidents, or self-harm as well as conditions affecting babies.”

A phrase of spurious origin is often repeated in business and by those involved in change management: You can’t manage what you can’t measure. While the phrase is flawed and one-dimensional, it does apply here.

We can’t get to the heart of recurrent issues unless we actually catalogue them and share the information. One hopes the pilot project proves a success quickly, and that it ultimately leads to a better future for the nation’s children.

The ongoing efforts of the families affected by mother and baby homes — Sean Ross Abbey and Tuam spring to mind just this week — to find justice for generations of Irish children shows how far we have to go. There’s incremental change and then there’s glacial change.

We owe our children so much better.

The power of the arts 

It is always rewarding to see somebody flying the flag for this country on the global stage, especially when that stage is tilting a different direction every day depending on how the Trump-Musk axis is feeling.

This week, at the Grammys, Cork’s Cian Ducrot became the latest of those with his R&B songwriting win, and at a time when culture and the arts can foster a sense of inner peace and resilience while the world goes to pot around us, it is a fine fillip.

It seems fitting that the audiences going to various arts events in this country are returning to pre-covid levels, a sign perhaps not just of renewed interest but also people finding an opportunity to escape the cold of inflation and geopolitics for the warmth of feeling something that only the arts can make us feel.

In that vein it’s gratifying to note, as Jess Casey’s report today does, the particular success of local cultural or arts festivals. It highlights that the appetite isn’t just for the big events on a national scale, but permeates society.

For a nation, indeed island that continues to punch solidly above its weight on myriad fronts — remember, the whole island has fewer people than New York City — it can only be a good thing for our cultural exports to thrive on the global stage. The Irish Examiner has already reported on how Ireland may draw on its golfing heroes as part of any charm offensive against American overreach, but it’s worth remember that we can, and do, compete favourably across the board.

And for a country that can leverage its cultural soft power like no other, it’s more important than ever that we get out and support those working in the arts, whether that be literature, stage, cinema, or music.

Ireland may be rolled in with the rest of the EU when it comes to trade agreements, but with the enormous number of American multinationals based here, we need to make full use of whatever advantages we have. Tariffs on EU exports are one thing, a concerted push to bring American companies back to the homeland is another entirely.

Economically, we cannot afford to take that sort of a hit. So could culture prove an Irish solution to an Irish problem?