Black brother I won’t forget

Sir — With all the disturbances in the past few weeks with the killing of black men in the USA, it made me think back to when I saw my first black man in my native town. He was a vet and he came to Ballyhaunis many years ago to help out a local vet with the TB testing of cattle.

The first time I saw him I stood in amazement — as it was my first time to meet a black man face to face.

Of course I had seen pictures of black people in papers and in magazines like The Far East and Messenger, and indeed in later years I contributed many, many times to charities supporting children in need in Africa, suffering with river blindness, from drought and so on, and also to support Irish missionaries. That was the Irish experience of that time.

While very young, back in High Infants, the nuns had cards with all our names and there were 50 little circles and every time we brought in a penny we could stick a pin in a circle until all the holes were pricked — and then we could put a name on a child in Africa and he or she would become our brother or sister.

It was not easy for a country boy like myself to get a penny, and the children of the doctors, shopkeepers, teachers and lawyers would have their cards filled first. But I persevered — by which I mean I personally tortured my poor parents until eventually I got my card filled in — and got a brother in Africa whom I called John.

The Irish missionary work in Africa has now turned full circle — and partly thanks to them we now have black priests administering in so many Irish parishes, due to the scarcity of vocations in this country. And that is the Irish experience of today.

But I will never forget my black brother John and hope he had a good life. My dream is that maybe one of his descendants is one of the priests now helping out in one of our dioceses in Ireland.

Murt Hunt,

Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo