Firsts by definition are few and far between. One such first notched up yesterday represents, in its own way, a small but not insignificant comment on today's Ireland. For the first time since the foundation of the State 83 years ago, a totally new Church of Ireland national school was opened. St Peter's in Dunboyne, Co Meath, already has 43 pupils.
A little under a quarter of them are non-Irish and a number are from denominations other than the Church of Ireland. As the school grows, it will cater for children from parishes from Enfield to Ashbourne.
It will strike many as remarkable that St Peter's is the first totally new Church of Ireland national school since 1922. Other C of I national schools have expanded, some have moved location and others that were closed have been reopened. But none was totally new.
Churches of the Anglican communion - the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church and the Methodist Church - have been enjoying a renaissance in recent years. Between 1991 and 2002, C of I numbers rose 2.4 per cent, Presbyterians increased their number by 4.1 per cent and Methodists increased by an impressive 6.1 per cent. In each case, the growth in numbers was the first since 1881, save for two minor increases for the Methodists. To some extent this growth mirrors a more generalised population growth. In the case of the Church of Ireland, growth has come from among existing members, from new members from abroad (many of them from east and west Africa, as well as the UK) and from members of other churches finding a spiritual home among Protestants that is more to their liking. Clearly, these are good times for the Church of Ireland in this republic but it was not always so.
The Church has been criticised in the past for its "keep the head down" approach to life in the aftermath of national independence in 1922. But it is now more credible than before to argue that that policy has served the Church of Ireland community well. The shameful policy of ne temere under which the majority church demanded that the children of mixed marriages were reared as Roman Catholics is long gone, if not entirely forgotten. Today, people of all faiths and none live, work and socialise side-by-side as a matter of unremarkable routine in an Ireland where it can be argued that a core Protestant value - that of the primacy of the individual conscience - guides much social policy.
In a week that has seen ordained men elsewhere on this island fail to condemn or dissociate themselves from sectarian violence, we should be grateful that diverse elements in this society rub along well and are prospering.