Update 30th October

1.   An important meeting re. Termon Lands and the Community initiative to develop a range of sporting facilities there takes place on Friday evening next, November 1^st in St. Joseph’s Hall at 8.30. While there are a number of ‘other things on’ it is important that those who can attend do attend on Friday night. 

2.       Boyle Junior team reached the Final of the County Junior ‘B’ competition on Saturday in Strokestown at 5.15. This is very interesting for me with two teams I have followed for large tranches of my life contesting a final for the first time in 69 years. The last time was a junior final in 1950.Boyle were impressive in the second half of the replay v Strokestown last Saturday in Boyle. One fisted point by Boyle, always a pleasant score for me.

3.       British Election Thursday December 12^th. The first British Winter Election in around 100years. Westminster term ends on Wednesday Nov. 6^th Guy Fawkes Night!

4.       What are the odds on an Irish General Election…December??? 

Super Saturday 19^th Not So Super.

I read over my last blog of Friday October 18 there now. It anticipated the following day as being ‘Super Saturday’ inclusive of sport and politics. The two main events of the day were Ireland v New Zealand and Boris Johnson getting his Brexit Deal passed by the narrowest number of votes in The House of Commons. Well Super Saturday turned into a damp squib. First up was the rugby game and from the off Ireland were in deep trouble and were slaughtered on the score of New Zealand 46 Ireland 14. It was a tad embarrassing. However it was not embarrassing apparently to the Irish support present at the game. They celebrated like it was a win and the Irish coach Joe Schmidt was clapped on the back for services rendered as he walked down from his viewing nest at the close of the game. He at least showed his shock and ashen faced he must have been embarrassed by the Irish fans reaction to him in the loss. If this had been an Irish soccer manager there would be little dancing with Sake or back clapping. It would also be the lot of a GAA inter-county manager after a big loss…Roscommon 0.09 v Mayo 4.19 replay in Croke Park 2018.

Personally I was not surprised though I did not pin the score I anticipated to the mast in that blog. A New Zealand banner was unfurled as the match ended and it read ‘Never in Doubt’ which was true for…a week at least.

The reality is that while rugby supporters for the most part enjoy their teams winning it is just part of a package. The package includes the pre-match drinks (maybe even a meal) in good hotels and bars around Lansdowne Road; meeting old boarding school chums, a night on the town following the game and so on. Defeat …no big deal. The disappointment soon melts. It is certainly not an occasion of life or death. On an occasion at rugby international in Lansdowne road in the 70s’ there was a small group of supporters in front of me with their backs to the game all through. Irish scores hardly made an impression. They were there for the occasion.

Another thing was the inflated expectations from nearly all the pundits print, radio, television, former players. The team/organisation and the rugby fraternity milk this. This creates the product.

Almost immediately after the game former international now RTE pundit Stephen Ferris was talking about France and the next Word Rugby Cup 2023! The golden duo of Murray and Sexton will be no more and as Schmidt announced around a year ago (!) he will be back in his home country.  

Ewan McKenna of the Independent really railed into the Irish performance and the apologists.

I was going to list the day’s newspaper predictions prior to the game but it is all water under the bridge now.

Just to add a little salt to the wound last Saturday England 19 comprehensively defeated New Zealand 7. England had two tries disallowed while they ‘gifted N.Z. their try. That will go down very badly in Kiwi country where rugby is their religion. Eddie Jones the Australian manager of England had a real put down of Steve Hansen the manager of N.Z. who suggested that England had peaked a game too early; ‘I send him my best wishes for their  third place play-off’.

On Sunday morning South Africa narrowly defeated Wales in a poor game. They go on to meet England in the final next Saturday at 9. England would be slight favourites. A picture of the South African team in their dressing room is doing the rounds and what beasts they all look. Amazing what strength and conditioning can do… weights etc. though Paul Kimmage might not be totally convinced as he chips away Jamie Heaslip.   

The Death of a Boyle Institution…Paddy Daly R.I.P.

There are people who you feel were and will always be …around. Paddy Daly was one of those Boyle icons. There are but a few of them left now. Age should be regarded and respected, as in that long life there is a lot of living and activity, of successes and failures and a reservoir of accumulated wisdom.

Paddy came from Ballycroy in North Mayo and spent some early years in England in the forties a fact few people knew. He came to Boyle in the latter forties and worked in Lowes hardware shop on Bridge Street with another icon named Bill Corcoran from Corrigeenroe. Both are pictured on Boyle GAA teams of the late forties.

He started his own business and expanded it in various ways. Paddy was obviously a very progressive business man and put a very firm stamp on the way he carried on that business. He married Monica and they became a loyal and highly regarded couple by all who came in contact with them. Their family too followed into sport and Sean, Paraic and Seamus were prominent Boyle GAA and soccer players. Sean helped establish Boyle ladies GAA Club and Paddy and Monica were very visible at many of their games. Sean’s death in 2011, still a young man, was a great blow to the family and community.

I remember a particular great afternoon in Daly’s bar. It was after the re-opening of the Abbey Park in May 2005 when a number of people retired to their bar. Amongst them were Danny Burke and his driver Christy Glynn, Mickie Menton, David O’Connor , Damien Killoran and many more talented individuals. It was a great evening of song and merriment. Paddy too participated and displayed a particular trick he had. It was a winning entry as it did not go exactly to plan and was the more enjoyable for that.

Daly’s was the great Fianna Fáil meeting house on Sunday afternoons. Paddy’s adherence to time regulations was legendary and I quote Paraic from his tribute on that; “You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here” Paddy would announce as the clock ticked towards closing time. 

Paddy’s sport- of- passion were his greyhounds and I was often in the Abbey Park to witness them getting a practise run. He must also have been into golf as I was hardly a wet week in Boyle until he tried to recruit me-unsuccessfully- to the game.   

In my time in time in Boyle I got to know two people very well who held Paddy in the highest esteem. One was Canon Dodd and the second was Kathleen Dwyer Morris.

As a quotation collector of sorts I remember a popular one from a man called Grantland Rice which goes; “It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.” Paddy Daly played his life with a straight bat. May he rest in peace.

Jarlath Michael Campbell R.I.P.

It is a coincidence that I was at a funeral in Castlebar last week of a fellow Mayo man like Paddy Daly. His name was Jarlath Campbell. Both of them worked in Lowes in Boyle in the early fifties. Jarlath was born in 1932 and was younger than Paddy. Both played for Boyle. Jarlath also went on to play for Roscommon in 1952 the year that Roscommon shocked All-Ireland champions Mayo in Connacht. After Boyle Jarlath went to Ballina and won a Mayo senior title with them. Then he immigrated to Canada, got married there and returned to Castlebar in the mid-sixties. He established an express phot-printing business there. Jarlath became very involved in Castlebar Athletic Club which was very successful in the 60s’ and the 70s’. Once when passing through Castlebar I decided to seek him out as I knew he lived in a town area called Kilkenny. I stopped and asked a walker where it was and the person asked me who I was looking for there and when I said Jarlath Campbell he replied; “You’ve found him. I’m he.” A long conversation followed as he enquired about his pals from Boyle, Bill Corcoran and Paddy Daly and he telling me of being in Lough Key Forest Park at numerous Cross Country Meets with members of his family and remembering happy times in Boyle and the Abbey Park. This was again referenced by his daughter in her tribute to her dad at his funeral mass. The family was pleased to see that Jarlath was not forgotten in Boyle. Sometimes we do not follow our instincts in those things and regret it a little afterwards. I was glad also that I was there.

Dáil Voting

Perhaps I am wrong but is there not too much hoopla and crocodile tears in the debate about some voting irregularities in the Dáil? Surely this should not come as a shock horror to most of those present and especially to the Ceann Comhairle whose job it is to have oversight in this respect. Could it not be sorted and the yellow card given without  making a mountain out of molehill and pronouncing the death of democracy because a couple of buttons were pushed?

Insurance Campaign

Now here is a real issue.

I see, from a large sign on the Sligo Road below the GAA grounds, that the two Sinn Féin T.D. s Martin Kenny and Pearse Doherty are having a seminar in King House on this coming Thursday at 8 pm on this hugely important issue.

The subject is also reflected in this week’s Roscommon Herald page 13 where Eugene Murphy T.D. is hosting a seminar called “Time for Insurance Reform” Monday Nov. 4^th in The Abbey Hotel, Roscommon at 8 pm.  His keynote speakers amongst others are Pat McDonagh CEO of Supermacs and Robert Troy T.D. F.F. Spokesperson on Enterprise and Jobs.

Nearly all of us know issues with all kinds of insurance, car, house, public liability, health insurance if that is not breaking into a different area. People in business especially those in crèches, any kind of adventure facility.  People are very conscious of their exposure to insurance claims. This is leading to business closures or threat thereof and of reluctance to get involved in x, y, and z because it might lead to insurance claim with the consequent spiralling of their already high premiums. There are reasons being widely broadcast such as exorbitant settlements by insurance companies in Court. Fraudulent claims are also an issue. I read/heard on radio about 4/5 weeks ago that around 90% of patients attending whiplash treatment clinics do not return after their claims come through.

Attending one of those meetings above might be beneficial and also demonstrate that people generally are agitated about it.

P.S. It is something to see that the car of Martin Kenny T. D. and a Garda Station have both been the subjects of arson attacks in recent days. 

P.P.S. When watching Brexit on BBC last night I saw an M.P. Paul Maskey I had never heard of. Paul is apparently a Sinn Féin M.P. I decided to Google to see how many like Paul exist there and who the other Sinn Fein M.P. s’ are. It turned out that there are seven Sinn Féin M.Ps’ returned from Northern Ireland. They do not take part in proceedings at Westminster of course…a long-standing tradition. In their absence my friend Sammy Wilson dominates N.I. interests there!   

Local People in Limelight…a little.

Owen O’Donohoe

It was nice to see that my neighbour and good friend Owen O’Donohoe (correct spelling) featured in  Brian Farrell’s popular series of profiles in The Roscommon Herald page three. Owen had also been nominated in the ‘Roscommon People of the Year’ listing for his contribution, for quite a number of years, to The Brothers of Charity.

Conor Mc Phearson, a grandson of another long-time friend and ‘comrade’of mine, John McPhearson, is playing in goals for Roscommon U 16 team in the Fr. Manning Cup now. So, good luck with that Conor. Boyle down the years has had a number of fine goalkeepers. Young Carney at the moment. A few years ago we had a fine long-time keeper in Jonathan Conroy who got a number of runs with the county. In the seventies we had the county goalkeeper in Gerry O’Dowd. In the fifties there was Bill Corcoran who succeeded Paddy Leonard.

James McDermott Cork Co. Final Winner;

James McDermott a doctor from Roscommon town and a stalwart for Ros. Gaels for years collected a Cork County Senior medal with Nemo Rangers on Sunday last. The last Roscommon person to do similar was Niall Daly with U.C.C. There were two other winners in the fifties both Roscommon greats named Eamon Boland and Eamon Donoghue. Boland had won a number of County finals with Tarmon; Castlerea in the 40s’and Eamon Donoghue won with St. Patrick’s Knockcroghery also in the forties.  The Cork club they both won their final with was called ‘Lees’ in 1955. Does anyone know anything about ‘Lees’?

It would be interesting to gather the names of other Roscommon footballers who have won county medals with other counties. 
 

‘Dark Lies the Island’ film.

Last night I went – out of curiosity- to see the above in Carrick. A lot of the production was filmed, obviously late at night or very early in the morning, in Boyle and around Lough Key.

My curiosity was misguided on this occasion.  

‘And so to bed’   S.P.

               

                     

Update 19th October

UNBELIEVABLE

BREXIT…  A MUST VIEW T.V. WATCH on Sat. 19^th from 5.45 pm on BBC… until late.

There is only one story in town this weekend so I just want to alert you to it hence this short Oblique View.  The story is BREXIT. Apparently Boris Johnson has blindsided the great majority of pundits and observers and achieved the impossible.  Superman. In his trail he has left a distraught DUP party with Arlene Foster, Nigel Dodds and the intellectual wing of the party, Sammy Wilson, in shock. Boris, in July, told the DUP that under no circumstances would he ever do x, y, z but then very unfairly did x,y,z! The observers said of this behaviour it was ‘promiscuous’ and that, ‘Boris was faithful to……Boris of course’. So move over ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ the cereal of the moment is…B…R…E…X…I…T.

(The irrelevant Baron Kilclooney (John Taylor former N.I. Minister) who reclines in The House of Lords has hit the headlines with a racial insult of Leo Varadkar and the suggestion that the Brexit Agreement would lead to a United Ireland which would make it necessary for thousands of Unionists to leave Northern Ireland and go to …I presume the mainland.  John Taylor is involved with the newspaper group Alpha the group that once bought The Roscommon Champion and had a premises on St. Patrick Street in  Boyle. The Roscommon Champion no longer exists of course. Anyway that is a minor digression).

Today, Friday, Boris is getting plaudits from Junker, Tusk, Barnier, Macron and a whole panel of politicians including Merkel who he insulted some time ago. He is just outside the nomination time-line for a Nobel ‘can do’ award. Maybe next year Boris. All is forgiven! The Commons last sat on Saturday during The Falklands War when the Iron Lady called the shots.  The fight now is for VOTES on Saturday with the margins being the slimmest. The key is the number of Labour MP's who abandon the (a)pathetic Corbin. These are Labour MP's who represent constituencies which voted LEAVE. They are under very severe pressure as their necks (jobs) are on the line. Macron might divert some Guillotines to Westminster and revive an old English tradition of ‘heads off’.        

Tomorrow, Saturday, we have as the main event THE VOTE in The House of Commons. This is the European Cup Final of Politics played out in the Palace of Westminster. No dodgy pitch there. All red carpet for the occasion.

One would nearly have to pencil in a Spanish nap tomorrow Sat. as first up is the Republic of England v The Commonwealth of Australia at 8.15am I think and then the Republic of Ireland plus the Northern Ireland  v New Zealand All-Blacks (their basketball players are called The Tall Blacks!). In the evening Boyle play Strokestown in Strokestown at 7.30 in the Junior ‘B’ semi-final. Everything is relative!

Tadhg T.V.

The smile inducing commentary of the week comes from realboyle’s television reviewer Tadhg as follow;          

“Monday

Fox 9pm

The Walking Dead

ANOTHER tadhg tv favourite is back this week, a show where our hero tries to survive in a world full of zombies

Now the zombies are not able to talk but just look at you and mumble.

I think I  tried to sell Boyle GAA lotto tickets to a few of them on a couple of Saturday nights.”

Update 12th October

*** Saturday Night Concert:

Donie O’Connor’s 60^th Birthday ‘Bash’ takes place in St. Joseph’s Hall this Saturday Oct. 12^th  @ 8. Donations to Mayo/Roscommon Hospice and Tommie Simon Fund. Special Guests St. Josephs Choir.

This is sure to be a really cracking night and maybe even a long night. The Choir was one of the stand-out performers of the July Arts Week programme with their special music renditions and some popular songs. Director Anne Kielty has become a Boyle musical icon who seeks the highest standards and infuses everything she is involved in with great energy and vitality.

Donie O’Connor himself is a hugely talented singer/songwriter with a number of C.D.s incorporating collections of wonderful songs on various themes including the famous ‘Boyle Song’ which is a homage to Boyle town and its personalities in the seventies. There will be many more supporting artists as the music fraternity are always willing to support one of their own in ventures like this.

So we look forward to the Donie Bash and it will bring back memories of two Kieran Emmett inspired great nights one in the hall and the second in King House.

An EPIC trip to Dublin

The Epic Emigration Experience

On Friday October the 25th I took a trip to the capital. I often think that I would have liked to have spent a real wedge of time there to familiarise myself with what Dublin has to offer. That will hardly happen now so it will have to be explored as per usual in short visits. The most recent visit was motivated by two things in no particular order. One was the very positive reports emanating from friends who had visited the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum. 

   EPIC in Dublin's Docklands covers the history of the Irish diaspora and emigration to other countries. Its founder is Downpatrick born,  South Africa raised Coca Cola supremo E. Neville Isdell and it was designed by the London-based design firm and was voted as "Europe's Leading Tourist Attraction" at the 2019 World Travel Awards. This is an outstanding achievement for a tourist destination in its very short existence having come on stream in 2016. It is now challenging for world recognition through a voting system.  

It is located on Custom House Quay about 7/8 minutes from Connolly Station. It was formerly a bonded warehouse for wine and this evident by the vaulted ceilings  of the succession of ‘bridge like’ caverns which house the broad range of emigration themes on display.

The varied themes celebrate the millions of Irish people who have emigrated to the various parts of the globe and how many of them and their descendants achieved great things and made enduring impacts on their adopted countries. I was not taking any notes during my three hour tour as I soon realised that I would need to revisit the EPIC Centre again to get a better evaluation of it. There are many connections with Roscommon noted such as Margaret Cousins of Boyle and her work in India also the painter Roderic O’Connor. It was in the traditional music area that Roscommon was best represented. First there was a stirring display of a music session in a pub in London, The Auld Triangle, and there playing were James Carty Jnr. and his uncle James. Minutes later in that same vault we heard more traditional musicians and were introduced to John Carty and Matt Molloy. Nearby were the McNulty family originally from Kilteevan who were prominent entertainers in New York up to the 1950s’. This area had a hugely impressive tribute to Riverdance and Roscommon was represented by Michael (?) Donnellan from Ennis the son of Michael from Ciaran’s Park in Roscommon town. There was also a fine representation of the GAA also with team pictures from clubs around the world. In the one for a Perth, Australia  team was a friend of ours, Sean Casey, just visible in the background. Sean is married to Joan O’Gara of Boyle. I figured he might be visible in any GAA representation so Joan/Séan if you read this you are in there in the EPIC. As James Cagney’s character Coady Jarrett exclaims in the film ‘White Heat’…”Made it Ma! Top of the world”. I’m forcing that in there Sean!

Anyway as General McArthur said ‘I will return’ to the aptly named Epic anon. If anyone else visits it, who reads this, please let me know what they think. As part of my China watch I noticed in the queuing at the reception area A 4 sized laminated pages with the flag of China top left corner. I did not investigate it further after a guide told me they hadn’t noticed it before or knew anything of it. The guides are very helpful and would like a stamp of approval in the evaluation area at the end. There is also a process where you can nominate a person who you feel should be considered for the exhibition. I nominated Maureen O’Sullivan as an example. On a practical level thee are also lockers if you have already done some shopping etc. Also, also, there are numerous eating and coffee locations in the mall of which it is the basement part and you can also (again) exit from the Epic for refreshments and return to the Epic with your day pass. All this information is online of course and as those seasoned travellers will know to avoid mid- summer etc. etc.

I really recommend the EPIC Emigration Experience and of course I am not doing justice to it here just alerting you to it.  

A Couple of Dublin Streets 

The walk from Connolly along Talbot Street to O’Connell St. can be off-putting with a whiff of intimidation from druggies or drinkers arguing. O’Connell St. is a major vista with its ‘what’s that about spire?’ and the great Cleary’s shop swathed in bandages, fast food outlets and a real mix of the good and the not so good. I have to go to the GPO museum yet. Henry Street looks fine now as a pedestrian way but is blighted by the seeing  of ‘down and outs’ in doorways at every 80 metres or so. Why an advanced society cannot provide for these unfortunate people rather than they resorting to this lifestyle is a mystery to me. (Perhaps we have a touch of it in Boyle as we see some individuals whose lives are consumed with just traversing the streets from early morning until night-time.) Down this street I located an in interesting Church now a restaurant and one I can recommend too.

Mossie’s C.D. Launch…Humours of Derrynacoosan

Later that night we were part of the second, third or fourth launch location of  Maurice (Mossie) Martin’s traditional music C.D. titled ‘Humours of Derrynacoosan’ . Derrynacoosan is wee townland not far from Keadue but in Ardcarne Parish. That is the Martin home and where the CD was born and produced. Mossie is very well known in traditional music circles as they say. I have known him since he was a boy when he attended St. Mary’s College here in Boyle. It was as a fine student and as an equally fine footballer that I got to know him nearly 30 years ago. He played for St. Michaels, St. Mary’s College and Roscommon U 16 and minor teams. He was also a very good soccer player with Boyle Celtic. However all along his music developed and has reached a lifetime goal in the production of this impressive musical treat. Noted musician Michael Rooney referenced  Mossie as  ‘… one of the finest exponents of the music of North Connacht’. John Carty in the introductory notes to the CD speaks tellingly of Mossie’s love for the music and how evident this is when he plays or in this instance records the music as in ‘…every sinew of his being, he infectiously shares with his audience and with his fellow musicians.’ This Saturday Oct. 12^th  he will be performing at Strokestown Feile and on the 25^th he will be back in Sitges near Barcelona at the festival there organised by Carline Wynne of Croghan. A number of Boyle people will also be there as in previous years.

Mossie is supported on the CD by his dad Tom, and family members Áine and  Brendan and accompanied by John Blake on various instruments. John also recorded the CD. Supporting Mossie in The Cobblestone were his dad Tom, Dylan Carlos, from Tulsk and Enda McGreevy from Elphin.  

The Dublin launch was in a noted traditional bar called the Cobblestone in Smithfield owned by the Mulligan family originally from Leitrim.

Roscommon People Shine

Mention of Dylan Carlos above reminds me of Roscommon people who have achieved in their various field recently. In no particular order starting with Dylan.

1.  Dylan became the first Roscommon man to win the All-Ireland Senior fiddle competition at the All-Ireland (All-World) Fleadh last summer in Drogheda.
2. Enda Smith Captain of Roscommon Connacht Champions.
3. Chris O’Dowd Emmy award winner.
4. Eoin Kennedy son of Eugene of Elphin Street, Boyle who captured his 10^th All-Ireland Senior handball championship.   
5. Jack Carty Rugby international with Ireland in the World (rugby) Cup.  
6. The wins by Aoifa and Lisa O’Rourke from Castlerea in boxing.
7. Sinéad Flanagan (father from Elphin) Rose of Tralee 2019.
8. Ml. Corrigan Boyle Celtic on Irish junior soccer team v Northern Ireland.   (Sean Purcell actually captained an Irish U 16 team v England in Longford circa 22 years ago).   
9. Roscommon Golf Club members, Fed Daly All-Ireland tournament winners.
10. All-Star nominations Niall Daly and Conor Cox. If I have missed some other notable achievements please let me know.

Brexit

I hear that relevant negotiators have moved into a ‘tunnel’ in Brussels as I speak. It seems as if there is some kind of a breakthrough of sorts in Brexit negotiations. We can only wait (it won’t be long) to see how that turns out. Nothing is predictable in this ongoing drama. As the Taoiseach said after meeting with Boris Johnson some time ago this may only be the beginning of a huge cycle of negotiations which could last for a decade. As Churchill said after the battle of el Alamein  

“This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning.”  

Turkey/Syria @ the Kurds

The U.S. troops have withdrawn from the border area of Kurdish Syria and now the Turkish army are ‘clearing that area’ of what they see as terrorists with the unavoidable collateral damage to life and property of the innocent.

There has been the threat of sanctions by European countries and organisations. What is really interesting is the response of Turkish President  Erdogan who has threatened to send millions of Syrian refugees to the west. He can facilitate this by opening the gates of the camps in Turkey where there are some 3 million Middle East refugees . Much of these camps are financed by the west but if they employ sanctions the refugee card could be played. That is a big trump card to hold!

Rugby in Japan

The rugby World Cup is encountering climate difficulties in Japan which could cause an almighty row if say Scotland get scotched from the tournament if they cannot play their last game.

The World Athletics Championships were held in Doha where temperatures meant the marathon had to start at midnight and even with this nearly half the competitors were unable to complete the course due to heat and humidity inducing illness. Eamon Sweeney in last Sunday’s Independent had a telling article on these games and the influence of drug cheats and their apologists and all that. I watched little of it from the sparsely occupied stadium. The next World Athletics C ’ships are possibly going to Eugene Oregon the home of NIKE Corporation. So corporations can get major events once the domain of countries. Was that the case with the Olympic Games on 1996 in Atlanta home of Coca Cola? The top man in Athletics is Lord Sebastian Coe of England. Next year the Olympics will take place in Tokyo where it had been previously in 1964. In 2020 it takes place from July 24 to August 9^th .        

The next soccer World Cup will be held in Qatar another hotspot during our winter and at the height of normal soccer leagues in Western Europe. The top man here used to be Sepp Blatter our rep. was (is ?) John Delaney.

Nobel Prize for Peace the President of Ethiopia

 The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali for his or his involvement in peace initiatives in East Africa especially between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

It is encouraging that it is felt that a leader of substance has emerged in that part of troubled East Africa. He joins the small number of African recipients which include Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu.

Another candidate was the Swedish school girl Greta Thunberg for her advocacy on ‘global warming’ now being referred to as ‘climate change’…milder title!