IRISH CONNECTION

In August 1986, I was a corporal service in the 2nd Rep Paratroop Regiment of the French Foreign Legion stationed in Mayotte just off the Reunion Islands. Unfortunately I was arrested and convicted by the Mayor of Mayotte (hands up I was guilty) of assaulting a local man and was sentenced to 3 months in the Reunion Island jail as an example. On arrival, I found I was the only European white man in a jail holding 2,000. After a week, I was joined by a white German. A few days later an Irishman - Pat - joined us. When chatting with Pat, he mentioned that he had been born in Duplin but spent his Summer holidays as a boy in Carlow. He then explained that he spent his time in small hamlet called Boris. He added that through the holidays he was looked after by a young girl called Elizabeth Burne - who is my mother! My sentence was reduced (my regiment was returning home) and Pat was waiting for me on my release. We called my mother and he spoke to her and she was the same woman who had looked after him in Boris. What are the odds on meeting someone in a remote African jail who knew my mother?