A window, with a plaque and an ominous skull and crossbones underneath. Long before the historical walking tours became popular in the city, he would defiantly observe the same storytelling routine despite our groans of impatient disapproval. 

It was at this window the mayor hung his son, Walter, who had confessed to the murder of a Spanish merchant sailor by the name of Gomez.

The pair had duelled, apparently over Gomez’s wife who Walter had developed a fondness for. Appalled by his son's act of execution, Lynch sentenced him to be hanged, but struggled to find anyone willing to carry out the hanging. 

And so, in order to appropriately uphold justice regardless of familial bond, James Lynch FitzStephen hanged his own son from the window of his Lombard Street home.

Great story, which - despite the efforts of historians - has never been comprehensively confirmed nor denied, not that that ever bothered my father. So too the etymology of the word “lynching,” which I long believed to have its orgins in Galway (though that ranks as a rather dubious honour). 

Regardless of its veracity, the effect on us as children was profound. Though his retelling was always humorous and flamboyant, my dad's message was clear: Stay away from Spanish merchants' wives. Or else.

Late Sunday evening President Joe Biden announced he would be exercising the privilege of his office to pardon his son, Hunter, who was recently convicted in two separate federal cases - one for gun possession, the other for tax evasion. 

The pardons mean that, despite Biden junior facing up to several years in federal prison, with one forgiving stroke of his father's geriatric hand, Hunter Biden’s record is wiped clean. 

It stands to be one of the last significant acts of presidency that has spiralled into a moral abyss during the last 18 months. 

That a man who has shown so little empathy - nay - flagrant disregard for millions of Palestinians whose lives he’s played such a violent role in destroying, could be so suddenly overcome by emotional weakness to grant clemency to his own son, points to a man so out of touch and uncaring of his legacy, he just doesn’t care.

You could forgive any father - burdened with the power to pardon his delinquent son - for being conflicted by the responsibility. But, Joe Biden is not just any father, he is the President of the United States. 

And Hunter Biden is not just any son, he is a 54-year-old man, not a teenager just starting out in life. 

The trauma of Biden's personal life is well known and heartbreaking by any standard - losing his first wife, Neilia, and year-old daughter Naomi in a tragic car accident and, much later, the death of his son Beau from brain cancer. 

Compounding those losses, undoubtedly, is Hunter Biden's battles with addiction. But, while nobody would wish any one of those challenges on a foe, surely a prerequisite to rule is the ability to separate church and state - as it were - and never put your family before country?

According to recent studies done by the NGO Innocence Project, over 20,000 falsely convicted people are currently incarcerated in US prisons, and the number is steadily rising. The vast majority of those wrongfully convicted are African American males. 

Data from the National Registry of Exonerations reveals that a total of 238 wrongfully convicted people were exonerated in the US in 2022 alone—that’s more than five people every week. 

Tellingly, these innocent individuals spent an average of 12 years behind bars before being exonerated. Such statistics put Biden's nepotistic clemency into perspective.

So too the fact that - despite President Obama promising to shut the facility - Guantánamo Bay remains open today, housing 30 ‘prisoners,’ most without charge or trial. 

A visit to the facility late last year by a UN Special Rapporteur confirmed that Guantánamo Bay’s legacy of torture and degradation is ongoing, even if the “enhanced interrogation” torture methods technically ended years ago.

Which brings us to the largest open air prison in the world, and another that Biden has all but held the keys to: Gaza.

There is little point in quoting the number of dead there, because any official figures are wildly underestimated and educated guesses put the number in or around 100,00 people. 

Suffice to say, it is no longer adequate to rank Biden as just a material supporter of Israel and Netanyahu, but a direct accomplice. A co-conspirator, unlikely to ever answer for the myriad of war crimes he has enabled.

To that end, the president's pardoning of his middle-aged son is hardly surprising, and quite unimportant. All it does is confirm what we already knew; that these people in positions of extreme power are only ever in it for themselves.

If it happened in the Global South, America would decry it as an example of an uncivilised people, but their mask of mores slipped long ago. The façade of empire crumbling like the arguments of a hypocritical fool drunk on a high stool. Just with a loaded gun on his hip.