Doctors Differ, Patients Die

Two interesting front-page stories from recent days, people. Monday’s Irish Times led with a story from political editor Stephen Collins, which runneth thusly:

Archbishop calls for action on crime as three die
"One of the country’s leading churchmen has described the spate of violent crime as close to a national emergency and has called on the Government to devise a new strategy to deal with the problem."

Not what you might call a good news story. Except the previous day’s Sunday Times (Irish edition) front page ran a piece from Mark Tighe and Tom Gordon that suggests ‘national emergency’ might be a little wide of the mark, to wit:

Don’t look now, but you’re in Europe’s safest country
"As surveys go it seems to fly in the face of reality, but figures to be released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that Ireland is the least violent country in Europe."

Which is a bit more serious than potayto / potahto, no? Anyone have any suitably wacky theories as to the discrepancy? We’re all ears …