Any listing of people who have been murdered in recent years would see the names of Frances Ralph and Oliver Leacy among those etched in sharp relief.
It is difficult to comprehend, in the case of Mrs Ralph, how a 25th wedding anniversary celebration ended last Thursday morning with the mother-of-three being stabbed in an apparently random attack as she waited for a taxi with her husband in Naas.
Or that, five days earlier, Mr Leacy was beaten and left for dead at his Leixlip home after assisting two youths who were being attacked by a mob. There is universal sympathy for both families as they try to cope with these terrible events.
However, in reflecting on recent murders - five over a 10-day period - it would be wrong to minimise those deaths which are labelled as "gangland" killings - where the activities of the victims are suspected to have motivated their attackers. Among these are the murders of Vincent O'Brien in Bray on August 10th, Eric Cummins in Cork on August 13th, and Andrew Dillon, whose body was found in a ditch in Finglas last Thursday.
The rate of violent deaths in the Republic is low by international standards and it tends to be cyclical. However as we seek to maintain that situation, it is important to resist the temptation to compile a hierarchy of murders - attempting to distinguish between "innocent" victims and those regarded as somehow "deserving" of their fate. All such deaths must receive equal condemnation and be investigated with equal thoroughness by the Garda. The alternative is to classify some murders as more acceptable than others. This is a dangerous approach and one guaranteed to perpetuate violence. And, as we learned to our cost in the mid-1990s, when criminals believe they can maim and kill with little chance of sanction, they will do so with increasing regularity and, in the process, infect the wider community.
All five recent deaths reflect a growing propensity for violence in society. The value accorded to human life is diminishing and there is an unravelling of long-standing conventions and mores. This change can be attributed to many factors - from a decline in traditional values to a breakdown in family structures, to a rise in the abuse of alcohol and drugs, and to the ready availability of guns.
These are complex issues and there is no simple response. Nor can we ever hope to attain a crime-free society. But the State must meet the challenge involved. Funding must be provided on an ongoing basis for intensive Garda activity - similar to the recent Operation Anvil - where the perpetrators of murders and robberies, the identity of many of whom is known to the Garda, are subjected to intense scrutiny.
Such operations must be the rule rather than the exception. The number of gardaí engaged in visible policing (rather than administration) must be maximised.
And, more fundamentally, there must be a real effort to intervene at an early stage in the lives of those young people who, through family or other circumstances, appear preordained to engage in crime.