At the centre of the rancour is the idea that Mr Martin has served as what Lenin would have described as a “useful idiot” for the Israelis. But the reality is that the picture, which appeared on an Irish Examiner social media feed, was not only not posed, but Mr Martin was not even aware that our journalist was taking the shot on a camera phone.

Undertaking diplomatic work does not imply approbation or support for the actions of the regimes whose representatives sit across the table, but it does necessitate a recognition of the philosophy explicitly stated by US president John Kennedy in Washington 60 years ago: “We must deal with the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be.”

Mr Martin’s mission, with the objective of obtaining the release of trapped Irish citizens, was not a comfortable experience and there were difficult and painful moments during his meeting with the Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen, Israeli ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich and the mayor of Sderot, Alon Davidi.

Whatever we may feel about our nation, Ireland is not perceived as a particularly strong supporter of Israel within that state. While we may take pride in flourishing our neutrality, we should not be surprised in a febrile and dangerous world if others have a less-accommodating view of us.

Mr Martin said he was shocked by some of the “simplistic vitriol” that his visit generated back home, but he surely cannot have been surprised by it, and may view it as a price which must be paid for contributing to the release of the first couple of dozen Irish citizens trapped in Gaza.

It was another US president, Theodore Roosevelt, who said that diplomacy consisted of “speaking softly and carrying a big stick”.

We may only have a small twig, and we have to rely on our persuasive abilities to appeal to both sides of a dispute. Grand gestures to the gallery will not be constructive. And neither will vacuous barracking from armchair experts back home.

Into the woods with Cork's robotrees 

There’s just a soupcon of classic French farce in the debate in Cork about the effectiveness of the “robotrees” which were installed on the Grand Parade and St Patrick’s Street with the
beguiling promise that they would improve air quality. This is an ambition which has yet to bear any fruit.

The schism between the conflicting views of councillors who have studied the results, has yet to match the legendary status of Clochemerle, the fictional village in the Beaujolais region where local government was brought to its knees by a proposal to install a vespasienne, or pissoir, in the town square, right next to the church. But it is having its moments.

The “trees” — regenerative bio-air filters made from sustainable moss — were installed on Cork-sur-Lee as part of a €55m National Transport Authority stimulus package in response to the pandemic. They cost €18,000 a year to maintain, a sum described as a “drop in the ocean” by one Fine Gael councillor, despite no tangible evidence that they produce any benefit.

Other councillors are less sanguine about the expenditure. One said the city had been “sold a pup” and criticised the State for handing out money “willy nilly” and telling local authorities to spend it on “some cookie new tech.” Another described the machines as a “massive white elephant”. Don’t stop believing seems to be the theme song of the tree supporters who voted to spare the axe for another six months to give the project the chance to germinate. Some of them bridled at being criticised for innovation, presumably on the Beckettian principle of “Try again. Fail Again. Fail Better.”

Fianna Fáil councillor Fergal Dennehy will find many who echo his views.

“Let’s get off the social media bandwagon,” he said. “Let’s give the director space and time to see if we can work with universities, or other groups, and stop running our meetings from social media.”

Amen to that. Perhaps a good way to mark Black Friday and Cyber Monday would be to stay off the socials.