(source :Maurice Billingsley)

Maurice Billingsley.

He writes (June 2009) :

" Zacharie Sorgo, from Burkina Faso, and Robert Ubemu from Congo, have both worked in Uganda, but today they completed a course in Spiritual Leadership at St Anselm's Institute in Margate. I was there to witness the ceremony and speeches. Zacharie will probably proceed to study in Leeds or Dublin, but Robert is off to Ivory Coast to study Peace and Development. Zacharie's course will be something similar but with a different emphasis. I hope I can pass him on to someone from the Pelicans in Yorkshire. "

(source : Maurice Billingsley)

Zacherie, Maurice and Robert

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(source : Peter Finn)


Peter writes (June 2009) :

"This stamp, that features Bishop Joseph Dupont,
was on a letter that I received from Zambia some years ago."

Looking at the inscription on the left side, it would have been 1991

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(source : Mike Ellis)

A recent photo of John Joyce, taken by Mike in 2008.



Mike Ellis & John Joyce back in the old days.

(Look carefully at these photos and you'll see that life was gradually becoming more colourful).

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(source : Mike Ellis)

Mike Ellis and John Strain (May 2009)

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(source : Robbie Dempsey)

Robbie Dempsey (left) and Pat McDermott (June 2009)

Robbie Dempsey met up with Pat in June 2009 and dropped in to see
Olivia O'Dolan at Belcoo, before travelling on to Denvish Island on Lough Erne.
He later wrote the following to Pat McHale and others :

" . . . . One very odd episode last week saw us - completely out of the
blue - on the trail of Brother Paddy's tractor. We followed a local
up and down lanes to a backyard. And there it was. Paddy had bought
a JCB over in Louth and then modified it to be a sort of digging tractor.
It bunged up the St. Augustine's carpark for some time. However, my
memory  of it is very vague. "

To which Maurice Billingsley replied :

" I remember Bro Paddy with a RED tractor at St Augustine's;
my recollection is that the JCB was one of those co-operative
ventures of his.  He had heard of one going cheap, and persuaded the local
farmers' co-op to buy it; it was a massive sum to any one of them at the time,
and he struggled to secure their agreement.  Then, of course, they had the only
JCB for miles; Paddy had in mind  field drainage—remember all those rushes,
a sure sign of poor drainage. But then came a couple of contracts, for the
foundations for the customs post and for the village sewerage system, which
went a long way to paying for it. But that may have been a different digger . . . "

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(source : Robbie Dempsey)

Brother Paddy's tractor.


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(source : Robbie Dempsey)

Pat MacDermott with Peter Maguire , a local from Blacklion who
knew Brother Paddy well, and knew of his JCB.

Robbie writes (June 2009) : " We met Paddy by chance whilst speaking to his
daughter who lives on a hill overlooking Loughan House. Peter
was once involved in amateur dramatics and recalled providing
props for various productions by the WF lads. "