Jeremy Corbyn: A very nice, low-key guy

I first met Jeremy Corby in the mid-80s when he stayed at my home. I was a young married man with two daughters Caoimhe and Cliodhna, and very involved in the “Miscarriages of Justice Group” which campaigned on National and Human rights issues.

At the time we were very involved in the Birmingham Six Campaign, Guildford Four and Time for Peace.

We invited Jeremy, as a new Labour MP, to speak at a public meeting in Dublin.

We had planned to book himself and his wife into a hotel and let them get on with their short visit to Dublin.

When Jeremy heard this he said to us all, nice and politely, that he would much rather stay with an Irish family.

You could see immediately he was interested in real people and wanted to connect with Irish people.

He was a very nice, low-key guy. I offered to put him up and he jumped at the idea.

I hadn’t told my late wife Anne yet. When I rang her and said would it be okay to feed and put up an MP she nearly fell on the floor.

British service men and women will now be in harm’s way and the loss of innocent lives is sadly almost inevitable pic.twitter.com/z338VAmIai

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) December 2, 2015

We were in a rented house at the time, in Artane and we didn’t have a lot.

I had to reassure her that this guy Jeremy was sound and not the precious type.

We all had a fantastic dinner and Jeremy was really nice to Anne and my girls.

We just chatted and chilled. Later on we went into town for a pint and everybody in the pub warmed to him.

There isn’t a bad bone in his body. He wanted to get to know Irish people and also wanted to do his best for Peace and Justice in Ireland.

Remember this was the height of the Troubles in the North and the horrific violence. He was ahead of his time and way ahead of Blair.

That to me was leadership.

This guy would do anything to save a life and I loved that about him.

Now he is being vilified because he does not want to bomb Syria and kill more innocent civilians.

Slaughtering women and children on the streets of Syria will not do anything for the dead in Paris or Beirut.

It does not mean we turn a blind eye to mass murders.

It means we react in a calm and sensible manner and root out the violent killers.

The UN should step up to the mark and use intelligence in a sensible and practical way to prevent violence.

It is time for cool heads and Jeremy Corbyn is definitely one of those.