‘I believe the children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way’.

Whitney Houston led a turbulent life and died far too young.

Her songs live on however and ‘The greatest love of all’ is one of her finest.

It’s a beautiful tune that carries many wise words.

I was reminded of the song recently after a discussion with a taxi driver about the rather unpleasant murder a few days ago of a Leinster teenager.

According to my driver the victim was no angel.

Given the manner in which he met his maker this was not a surprising thing to hear.

Let’s just say the killing was gruesome.

So how does one human being do such things to another?

And what leads a 17 year old to do things that brings about such an unimaginably horrible death?

Needless to say I do not have any answers to these questions. Is it all social circumstance? Is there bad luck involved? All I know is something went badly wrong in the upbringing and teaching of all those involved.

My driver spoke of his own parenting experience. He spoke of passing on the best life values as he knew them to his children and then setting them free to deal with the big bad world as best they could.

That’s the most any parent can do.

Being a parent is the most important job in the world, yet there is no interview process for it.

I do not know the details behind this particular crime and I’m not sure I want to.

What I do know from many years living in the heart of Dublin is that there are some people in life who just have no business having children.