Passage of children’s referendum is a tribute to work of McGuinness

SOMETIMES, especially in the hurly burly of life, you forget what idealism looks like. And then you meet someone like Catherine McGuinness.

She has no right to be an idealist, and even less to be an activist. She was born, if Wikipedia is correct, in 1934. That makes her a good deal older than me, and I’m ancient! But she is anything but ancient. In fact she is an inspiration. She uses a walking stick to get about, but I have seldom met anyone with so clear a mind, so passionate a commitment, or so steadfast a set of principles and values. You’d follow her anywhere.

I’ve been following Catherine McGuinness since the referendum campaign on the rights of children began. In most of the ways that matter, she was the one who began it.