In the UK a senior police officer, April Casburn, has been found guilty of corruption and will, most likely, end up in prison.
Such an event is an impossibility in our corrupt state.
Casburn phoned the News of the World newspaper and offered to pass on information about a police investigation into the newspaper.
No money changed hands and the story was never printed.
In our corrupt state such an incident, if noticed at all, would be treated as a minor indiscretion warranting no action whatsoever.
The investigation, trial and conviction of Ms. Casburn were all completed within two years.
In our corrupt state any investigation into police corruption would take ten to fifteen years. There would be endless media discussion, politicians would waffle an about never allowing this sort of thing to happen again and, of course, there would be no convictions.
The crucial difference between functional, accountable democracies and corrupt states like Ireland is that in countries like Ireland there is no law enforcement agency allowed to operate independently of the (corrupt) political system.