It strikes me that people living outside France might not be aware about the reverence and respect in which the cartoonist is held here.

Strip cartoons here, called Bandes Dessinées, would be regarded as a legitimate art and books of these cartoons would merit an entirely respectable place in the bookshelves of intellectuals.

Look at the French language cartoons which have achieved world renown like Asterisk and Tintin and you begin to realise how seriously these are taken here.

The fact that there is a weekly magazine dedicated to political cartoons tells us much.
Those cartoonists who were massacered last week were household names, trying to relate this back to Ireland, or even England there really are no comparisons on the same level.

This is why the whole country is mourning and in shock.