The end is nigh for Brady...

Ireland's prime minister Enda Kenny believes that as PM he is precluded from calling for Brady's resignation. But that didn't stop him saying he thought the cardinal should consider his position. (Incidentally Kenny lashed out at the hierarchy in unprecedented terms last year, and withdrew Ireland's ambassador to the Vatican.) The foreign and education ministers have been more forthright, as has been Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness. They all think Brady should go. So does the chief executive of leading children's charity Barnardo's.

But the killer punch could be THIS article in the Dublin Evening Herald by Garry O'Sullivan, not only because of its telling insights, but because O'Sullivan is the editor of a highly influential magazine, The Irish Catholic. He acknowledged that Brady was thought by some to be a man of prayer, but added: "He was also ambitious, and ambitious within a system that rewarded blind obedience."