Stone throwers’ president beats OBE for Cormac MacConnell

It is ironically and bitterly true that the two greatest honours bestowed on me during my increasingly longer lifetime are directly connected to my frequent attendances in good lively public houses in Co Clare.

That reality struck me like a sledgehammer this week, when news reached me of the untimely passing of my good friend, John Campbell of The Inchiquin Inn, in the angling village of Corofin, on the edge of The Burren.

We lived there for a couple of years, about two decades ago, and that is how I became acquainted with genial John and his wife Anne, who ran a splendid establishment in the centre of the village.