The evolution of a global icon

Mandela: A Critical Life, by Tom Lodge, Oxford, €22.05.

The grandiose trappings of a state funeral could not disguise the fact that by the time Charles Haughey died this year, for a figure who once excited such strong and violent passions two decades ago, his passing was greeted with a large degree of public indifference.

Time had simply moved on and he was part of a world that people were keen to forget.