Perhaps it was the record-breaking temperatures of last week that fried my brain, but I came to thinking that we have a lot to be grateful for in this country at the present time.

With the world in a state of turmoil between wars, famine and political unrest, we are privileged to live in a country at peace with itself and our neighbours.

Never forgetting our past, it is something we shouldn’t take for granted and indeed these may be the halcyon days (perhaps internationally similar to the heady years before World War I) before Europe and the west may have to seriously re-arm to counter the ever-increasing threat from Russia and the east. But, be that as it may, we are at peace in Ireland and long may it last.

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Politically, at the present time and for recent years we are also in a good place. We have a solid centrist government with neither far right nor far left extremists (with a few exceptions) lusting after power as there are in so many European countries at the moment. We have a stable government – they are not perfect I know but, in the main, we should be grateful. I think we as a country, with our PR system, know how to use democracy. Is it not said that we get the leaders we deserve?

Contrast this with our neighbours in the UK where they have had six or seven prime ministers in the past 10 years and all the instability that goes with that –and here they go again.

Britain is still in Empire mode and has failed to adjust to a post-colonial world

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage is chomping at the bit for power and, to my mind, will ultimately become their prime minister and sink the country into a far right, Trump-esque hegemony. How the mighty have fallen and as a race, Britain is still in Empire mode and has failed to adjust to a post-colonial world.

Brexit was the iceberg that Britain floundered upon and it was its Titanic hour. It could have been avoided but like Titanic it was invincibility and full steam ahead. It could never be right to exclude yourself as a European country from an affluent market of 450 million people. God knows, Europe is not perfect but just as the future is poor for the small retailer with Tesco next door, there’s no future for countries remaining outside the European Union.

Economically too we in Ireland are in a good place with full employment. The country is buzzing and our infrastructure is so improved with great roads, airports and seaports. But there is one enemy on the horizon and fast approaching and that’s in the use of artificial intelligence (AI). We need to tread very carefully in this direction.

There are lessons from history with workers being replaced by machines but there are other more sinister and indeed frightening aspects to AI. We must not let the genie out of the bottle.

I believe we are in a great place agriculturally

And finally, there’s my favourite child, Irish agriculture. Yes, I know milk prices could be better and indeed beef and certainly grain prices too but despite these transient blips, I believe we are in a great place agriculturally. The progress that had been made in the last 10 years is phenomenal. We are becoming ultra efficient in food production and land availability for agriculture is becoming ever more finite and very precious. There just isn’t enough of it.

In Ireland we have an enviable food production model that mustn’t be messed up by vested interests in fertiliser regulation and global warming. Food production and European food security was never more important than it is at the present time.

We can deal with rising temperatures but we cannot deal with hungry people. Besides, the use of AI will fry the world first, long before global warming does.