The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has found a 35% increase in the corncrake population here in the past five years, an increase that has been accomplished by hard work and co-operation. The bird was specifically threatened by intensive farming, and co-operation with farmers has been key to the measures helping their revival: Measures such as allowing large patches of nettles or other vegetation for the birds to hide in, and delaying grass mowing until mid-August enable the corncrake to raise broods in safety.

Adapting farming approaches is a key element in another good news story this week — the decision of Peter Monaghan, a farmer in Cavan, to diversify into snail breeding when he realised his beef herd would not create a viable income on its own.

Now Mr Monaghan has a thriving snail farm that rears, fattens, and finishes snails — approximately 3m per year, mostly for export. He has also branched out into education, providing on-farm and virtual training courses for anyone else interested in starting a snail farm.

On the face of it, these are relatively small developments when compared to the devastating global impact of climate change. However, we are also told that it is everyone’s responsibility to make changes in their own lives which can have a positive effect on the environment. They are good examples of positive changes, even without acknowledging the genius involved in naming one’s snail farm Inis Escargot.

Another assault on democracy

On Thursday, we learned of a presidential candidate being assassinated in Ecuador while on the campaign trail.

Fernando Villavicencio, a former journalist among those running for the presidency of Ecuador, was shot and killed outside a school in Quito. Nine others were wounded in the incident, while one of those suspected of shooting Villavicencio was also killed in the incident.

The clichéd description of such a horrifying event is that it is an assault on democracy but, like all clichés it carries more than a germ of truth. One of the cornerstones of any free society is that its citizens can run for and hold office without fear of threats or intimidation, let alone assassination. The reverse is also true: Is any country entitled to be called a fully functioning democracy if such killings take place?

The implications of an event such as this killing for the people of Ecuador are particularly frightening and depressing: The country is already enduring historically high levels of serious crime at the hands of powerful drug cartels so it was little wonder that Rafael Correa, the country’s former president, sympathised with Mr Villavicencio’s family on his passing and described Ecuador as a “failed state”.

However, in his work as a journalist, Mr Villavicencio reported on crime and corruption, particularly in Correa’s administration — work that earned him so many death threats that at one point he sought political asylum in Peru. Those death threats now take on an even grimmer significance in the light of his assassination.

The murder of a political candidate — with an established track record in exposing corruption — can only be described as an unwanted watershed in any country’s history. One of Mr Villavicencio’s friends said his death shows how difficult it is to fight corruption and to be safe at the same time — a lesson with universal applicability, but with terrible resonance for the people of Ecuador at present.

Secret of success

Earlier this week, the snail farm mentioned elsewhere on this page, Inis Escargot, looked a runaway winner in any contest for the most enterprising mixture of Hiberno-English and French. Then Ronan O’Gara came up on the rails with his now-legendary team talk to take the prize.

Footage emerged on social media of the Irish Examiner columnist addressing his La Rochelle squad in a mesmerising blend of conversational French and blunt Anglo-Saxon, all of it delivered in a mellifluous Cork accent. It was like hearing Emmanuel Macron buying Tanora in a shop in Ballyvourney.

While French teachers all over Ireland were no doubt covering their eyes at the prospect of O’Garalikes cutting loose in future oral examinations, he may have inspired a few to hit the books. Either way, the entertainment value offered by the footage obscures the Corkman’s phenomenal achievements thus far.

He is one of the few Irish coaches or managers operating at an elite level in a professional sport, winning silverware regularly. In addition, he has achieved that success with what is, in French rugby terms, a relatively unheralded club whose roll of honour coincides in large measure with O’Gara’s tenure as head coach. He is teaching Irish kids and his peers that being the best is achievable wherever you are in the world.

With the country beginning to move focus from the Irish performances in the Women’s World Cup to the Rugby World Cup which begins in France next month, it seems apposite to point out that O’Gara’s insights into the game are of course available here to our newspaper readers and subscribers.

You can ask the lads in La Rochelle about those insights. No matter what accent he uses, they work.