We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Irish Embassy in Uganda. The ties between the two countries go far deeper than Ireland’s development aid programme, which has had a deep impact on communities over the last three decades, especially in Karamoja in the north east. In the second of a two-part series, regular visitor to Uganda, Miriam Donohoe, writes about the unique bond between the two nations.
TODAY, IRISH WOMAN Kathleen Noble will proudly represent Uganda in rowing in the Paris Olympics. The 29-year-old is the African nation’s first and only white Olympian across any sporting discipline – and also has the honour of co captaining Team Uganda with record-breaking long distance runner, Joshua Cheptefei.
How an Irish woman came to be participating in the world’s biggest and most competitive sporting games for Uganda is quite the story. Her parents, father Gerry, a doctor and development consultant from Enniskillen in Fermanagh and mother Moira, a teacher from Newbliss in Co Monaghan, moved to Uganda in 1994, a week before Ireland opened its Embassy here. Kathleen was born five months later in Nakaseke in central Uganda where her parents worked at a mission hospital in Luwero.
A prodigious swimmer in her youth Kathleen, one of three children, represented Uganda in the 2012 World Swimming Championships at just 17 years of age. She learned to row on Lake Victoria, one of Africa’s Great Lakes, in second-hand boats donated to Uganda by the World Rowing Federation in an effort to grow the sport.
“Uganda was a hugely different place when we first arrived,” said Moira “The road infrastructure was so poor, and telecommunications non-existent in rural areas. And wealthy Ugandans were not as visible as they are today.”
Staying in Uganda was not in the couples’ grand plan, and they certainly never imagined their daughter would represent their adopted country at the highest level of sport. Gerry is still a registered doctor and now works in development consultancy, while Moira has worked for the last 20 years as a teacher at the International School of Uganda.
“We kept saying we will stay another year, and then another, and before we knew it the kids were grown up and we are still here,” said Moira. “We love Uganda and the Ugandan people. The last few years have been very special for us. In 2021 Kathleen took part in her first Olympics for Uganda in Tokyo, in 2022 myself and Gerry got Ugandan citizenship and our son Daniel married Maria, who is Ugandan, in the same year.”
Another Irish “lifer” in Uganda is Ian Clarke, also from Armagh. A doctor, philanthropist and entrepreneur he and his wife Robbie have lived in Uganda for almost 40 years. He became the first ever white person to contest and win an election in Uganda, becoming the Mayor of Makindye, a district in Kampala, in elections in 2011.
“I came here first in 1986 just after President Museveni took power and the country was chaotic,” he recalls, “But there was an upbeat spirit in the place. I was a GP in Newtownards and I was not very challenged. I remember sitting in my office one day thinking about this disease that was killing people – AIDS – and wondering was there anything I could do to help. I needed a sense of purpose.”
Ian took part in a two-week exploratory visit to Uganda with a group from his local Church. “I went to a hospital in Rubaga in Kampala, and that was an eye opener. The conditions were shocking. Then I visited the Lowero Triangle was here Museveni had been fighting war in the bush, and the area was in a dreadful state with virtually no health services.”
Following this introduction to the country Ian and his wife Robbie came to Uganda on a two-year contract with the Church Mission Society. “ I don’t like the term missionary as it has connotations of “white people” coming to “save” the country. But I did medical work in Kiwko in the Lowero Trianglle. It was in the middle of nowhere. I trained health workers and eventually built a clinic and developed that into a small hospital.”
After a few years in London where Ian did a Masters in Tropical Medicine, the family moved back to Uganda, at a time when AIDS was killing thousands. Ian went on to develop Uganda’s first private hospital, International Hospital Kampala. This was followed by the opening of Clarke Schools and Clarke University. His latest venture is in coffee farming in Fort Portal in the west.
When Ian decided he was going to run for election as Mayor as an independent candidate in his district of Makindye in Kampala people told him he was mad. “The idea that a white man was going to be successful was inconceivable,” he said. “But I was motivated to make a change in the area. The traffic was chronic, there were potholes, blocked drains, the place was a mess. There were desperate slums in the district.”
“That campaign was hard. I had to speak in the local language, dance on top of trucks, ride a bike! If I ever stood for election in Ireland it would be a walk in the park compared to that campaign. But I caught the imagination of the local people.”
Ian says his biggest achievement as Mayor was fixing potholes and getting some work done cleaning up slums. “There was no long-term policy to re-house from the slums or improve the area. I was often out directing traffic as we fixed potholes. A lot of councillors couldn’t understand why I was so hands-on. They were too busy politicking. But what was great was how I was accepted by local people and constituents. I was one of them.”
Ireland’s ties with Uganda go back way longer than the 30 years that the Irish Embassy has had a presence. Irish missionaries first came in the early 1900s, and one of its most famous is Arklow-born Franciscan nun Mother Kevin. She left the UK for Uganda on 2nd December 1902 arriving on January 15th 1903. Over the next 50 years, she established schools, hospitals and charitable institutions and is today fondly remembered and honoured in Uganda, and known as “Mama Kevina”. A process for her beatification began in 2017 and is currently at Vatican level.
Another legendary Irish missionary who made a huge impact was Medical Missionary of Mary nun Sr Maura Lynch, a surgeon renowned for her work with impoverished women and for carrying out obstetric fistula repair and teaching the procedure to Ugandan health professionals.
Ireland has also played a transformative role in developing palliative care in Uganda. Professor Dr Anne Merriman, who was born in the UK to Irish parents, joined the Medical Missionary of Mary in Co. Louth in the 1950’s, and studied medicine at UCD. Known as “the mother of palliative care in Africa” she founded Hospice Africa Uganda in 1993 and is credited with spreading palliative care not just in Uganda but across the African continent.
Culture has also paid a huge role in the relationship between Ireland and Uganda and a phenomenon in the last two years has been the establishment of several GAA clubs with hurling in particular beginning to prove very popular. A cultural programme led by Galway native John Walsh and his Uganda wife Deborah teaching Irish Dancing and GAA is being piloted in several schools. The programme aims to giving children from under-resourced schools quality dance, sports and music lessons.
Under this programme, Lord of the Dance troupe member, Jean Kennedy from Co Laois, has been teaching children Irish dance remotely using videos, and she visited Uganda earlier this year to prepare children for an incredible performance of Irish dance – fused with some Ugandan moves – at the annual St Patricks Ball. The talented dancers received a rousing reception at what is the social event of the year in Uganda, with all nationalities including Ugandans attending. Tickets are like gold dust.
Education is also strengthening ties with the two countries and in particular the Irish Aid Masters Fellowships which give Ugandans in early to mid-career the opportunity of further education, including in universities in Ireland.
One of the Fellowship alumni is Uganda’s first woman DPP, Jane Frances Abodo, who went to Kangole School in Karamoja, Uganda’s poorest district, and which has been supported by Ireland for the last 20 years. She is the first person from Karamoja to go on to become a lawyer and credits the opportunity to go to Ireland to undertake a Masters in Law in Trinity College, Dublin, with advancing her career.
“I had been a prosecutor for many years, but doing the Masters prepared me for new heights and pushed me to do more. Afterwards I applied with confidence for a position as a judge and succeeded. Then I was appointed DPP.”
Irish Ambassador to Uganda, Kevin Colgan, said he is proud of Ireland’s contribution to Uganda’s development. “Ireland has had a strong presence in Uganda since the start of the last century. Many Irish have made Uganda their home whether early missionaries, Irish that came in the 60’s and 70’s after independence to help build a new nation, or the young more recently arrived Irish.”
“We are always finding ways to work together, in music or dance, culture, sport, education or health. We have more in common, than what divides us. As it continues along its path of development, with its vibrant, ambitious and young population, I believe Ireland will remain a strong partner of the journey to a brighter future for Uganda and Africa.”
Miriam Donohoe is a journalist and media professional.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I don’t know why they’re getting angry about flights being stopped. I mean I understand it, but they need to be realistic. They can’t contain it in their own towns and cities, so other countries have the right to try to prevent it coming into them.
They have that right…. Don’t they?
Well, politicians are known to throw shapes at one another. Of course Ivory Coast and Senegal have the right to seal their borders. As for the WHO’s alarmist claims… Liberia has always been a project of wishful thinking ever since the Americans founded it. Perpetual, ineradicable poverty will do more to dismantle the country than Ebola.
Have we any measures in place I wonder to assess/quarantine people arriving from affected regions?
Most epidemiologists believe the WHO predictions are in fact conservative, it’s going to be even worse. This is from Science Magazine, a respected scientific journal.
“If the disease keeps spreading as it has, most of the modelers Science talked to say WHO’s estimate will turn out to be conservative. “If the epidemic in Liberia were to continue in this way until the 1st of December, the cumulative number of cases would exceed 100,000,” Althaus predicts. Such long-term forecasts are error-prone, he acknowledges. But other modelers aren’t much more encouraging. Caitlin Rivers of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg expects roughly 1000 new cases in Liberia in the next 2 weeks and a similar number in Sierra Leone.”
Kai Kupferschmidt, Disease modelers project a rapidly rising toll from Ebola. Science Mag: http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2014/08/disease-modelers-project-rapidly-rising-toll-ebola
@John there is exit screening at every airport in the region, no direct flights from Africa to here. Someone making it here would have their passport flagged at any airport and be screened, so they’d have to get here by land and sea, by which time they’d be symptomatic and be isolated or screened anyway before they got a chance to spread this.
Only one case of Ebola has ever happened in Europe and it did not lead to a spread.
You plonker,ablitive,the u.s couldnt care less about africa.
The US civilian pandemic control agency the CDC has flown 100s of staff out to Africa, as they do with every major epidemic, on their own dime, to help WHO (of which the US is the biggest funder by far) set up exit screening at airports and help them control the epidemic. Did we send HSPC staff? No. Did the NHS send anyone? No. Did medicare Canada or medicare Australia send anyone? NO. Only the US sent it’s own domestic agency staff, whos primary job is to protect Americans, to a region where no Americans other than themselves are at risk, these AMERICAN doctors (some of whom have died) put their lives on the line to help these total strangers, at their own expense. No other country has done this, nobody else sends their own domestic agency out to foreign countries for free to help people.
Two American companies are working on drugs to treat this with the NIH, they gave nearly their entire stockpile of the most promising of these drugs to the Liberian health service, for free, on humanitarian grounds, for them to try on people who are definitely going to die anyway so there is nothing to loose giving them a ”hail mary” shot as they called it.
The US has a lot of problems I’m the first to say, but they and their staff are the heros in this story not the villains.
Governments will do anything to close down libraries
Forget about global warming, this is the sort of thing which will get us in the end as bugs develop resistance to all known antibiotics.
Trying to explain that it won’t help the flu is the same as trying to explain to them that it’s better for your healthcare to have 1 big regional hospital rather than 3 small pokey A&Es because the staff get more foot traffic, see more cases, more variety and become better doctors…just in one ear and out the other, they don’t care.
Luckily viruses tend to become less lethal over time not more, HIV has been around for at least 100 years now in one form or another it’s never mutated into anything more dangerous or airborne.
Of all the possible homeland security threats Ireland faces pandemic is our ‘national response scenario’ (the ranked system the yanks use to determine which scenarios are the biggest threats) number one.
We only have a certain amount of resources so we can’t prepare 100% for every single threat, so we scale them on a threat matrix trying to coincide what is the most deadly threat with what’s the most likely getting what is the most likely of the most deadly options, and that’s the one we pay the most attention to for planning
The ones the public worry about like a nuclear meltdown on the UK coast would not actually affect us in the least, surprisingly, the biggest threat that could take the most lives is pandemic so that’s where our biggest attention is and why we have major stockpiles of Tamiflu, Smallpox Vaccine, Relenza, H1N1 vaccine, pediatric preparations of the drugs, stockpiles of protective equipment…we’d be in the best shape of any in Europe if something like pandemic influenza came about. Plans estimate it would take at least 6 months to come up with a vaccine so the first wave of the pandemic would have to just be rode out, but since we live on an island it’s easier to isolate us.
If the virus starts hitting the UK and France all we need do is close the ports and airports and were protected 90%.
Healthcare is an all Ireland competence for the N/S Ministerial Council so we could take a join decision to isolate the entire island.
If the virus popped up here all we need do is declare a curfew for all nonessentials, allow newsagents to be open until that night to let people stock up, but immediately close down major shopping centres, schools, college campuses etc to stop people congregating, then after the curfew is in effect and everyone’s had a chance to get home / find a hotel / get groceries its easy to terminate all intercity road and rail travel, we have Garda, Garda Reserve, Army and Naval reserve, Civil Defence we have enough personnel to deal with it thankfully we never heeded those bonkers demands from some to disband the armed forces.
The United States is using Ebola to advance its imperialist agenda in Africa.
The United States is using the epidemic of the Ebola virus to advance its imperialist agenda in West Africa, a civil rights activist and journalist in Detroit says.
It was also mentioned recently that the US army will be drafted in.
“Never let a good crisis go to waste”. Winston Churchill
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/09/09/378229/us-uses-ebola-to-advance-imperialist-agenda/
You crack me up
Good stuff this great for a laugh
I am only quoting an article from a US Human Rights activist and I bet no one even read the article..
Meanwhile in another article in Journal this morning Obama has announced “war against ISIS” which will involve invading Syria… People need to wake up to US’s military expansion.
.
Ablitive I love a conspiracy theory but on this one maybe just keep the tin foil helmut on so we can’t read your mind.
16 Apocalyptic Quotes From Global Health Officials About This Horrific Ebola Epidemic..
You can add the headline from this article as the 17th…
You say ‘human rights activist’ like it’s a position of authority or something. Jesus, any lunatic can have an opinion.
Ablitive, you’ve been hoisted by your own petard. I stopped reading any of your links months ago. Everything in your world is a US/ Jewish conspiracy. Sadly, if you ever make a valid point it will be lost amongst the rainstorm of your conspiracy theories.
charles .. I don’e even want to hear from you again from your vial and insensitive postings on Gaza
And yes everything points to the Zi0nist conspiracy of take over the world by greed, from infiltrating governments, the mainstream media, most importantly banking.
I rest my case. Thanks.
And Charles I wouldn’t put a pass on it that Israel was behind the Ebola Crisis..They are the worlds NO 1 rogue nation. from genocide in Gaza to human organ trafficking.
I’m sure you’ll dig out a wholly unbiased presstv article implicating the Israelis in the extinction of the dinosaurs too. Feel free to ignore me from now on. Thanks.
Frank, did you really just suggest that Israel may be responsible for the outbreak of Ebola??
Frank, so nothing happened on September 7th after you said something big was going to happen.
Care to explain why your prediction was wrong?
Declan Noonan ….This was my posting on a thread last Saturday re possible false flag dates. Still two to go…
……………………………………………..
This would be a good guide..
There are three dates this month that add up to 777 taking September (Septem Latin for 7)
7th Septem 2014 (2+0+1+4 =7)
16th Septem 2014 (1+6=7)
25th Septem 2014 (2+5=7)
Today’s date September 7th 2014 is the most powerful as it contains two hidden 7′s .
September 7 is the 250th day of the year 2+5+0 = 7
There are 115 days remaining until the end of the year 1+1+5 =7
Looking back at 9/11 …
September 11 is the 254th day of the year 2+5+4 = 11
There are 111 days remaining until the end of the year
Avina Laaf .. Nothing would surprise me about Israel today.. they can get away Scott free with genocide, they have a law unto themselves. their quest is for world governance and they will do anything to achieve this goal including war, manufactured terrorism which could include biological weapons.
“Unfortunately, Israel is not the only regime with criminals and madmen running its germ warfare program. The United States of America also fits that description”
.http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/05/05/361346/bioweapons-could-lead-to-apocalypse/
But frank nothing happened on the 7th as you predicted something will?
I might have to start laughing at you now.
Btw, where’s joe and glen to back you up?
You’re an odd ball! 7 is an odd number too…. what a coincidence? !
Declan Noonan .. The next false flag on US soil will have the number 7 triplicated. Just like all other major US / Mossad false flags … MH17, 9/11 and 7/7..
Watch this space… False Flag season is upon us and the US authorities are itching themselves for the next one which no doubt they will blame on their latest invented bogyman terror group.
http://s4.postimg.org/qrnr1a6wd/addtext_com_MDUz_NDQ1_Nj_Q4_NDU.jpg
@ Ablitive,
Get a life frank.
Mark Heehee .. 7 is certainly an odd ball number.
For those of you not conspiracy theorists, the US military is worrying more about ISIS seizing control of the Middle East and about Russia starting WWIII (GWB having set a dangerous precedent that you can just invade and take another country if you want back in 2003), it does not have time to go f__ing around in Africa.
You really don’t know your enemy very well do you Abladive? The US has been afraid to deploy even peacekeeprs to Africa after the Somalia debacle, where the Marine Corps did a humanitarian aid operation off their AA ships, ending a famine, and their thanks was an attack on them and the UN forces which ended in their corpses being dragged through the streets.
Why do you think they didn’t get involved in stopping the Rwandan Genocide, despite what they said there was no logistical barrier, the RDF force could have put 25,000 troops there within days, the French and Belgians had 1000 troops there in a day to evacuate their own people and the troops, esp the ones who had been in Somalia, were dying to go in and stop it, but politically it was poison after what happened in Somalia.
There is no logic in sending troops in against a pandemic, troops can’t shoot germs, and their own troops are controlling civil disorder. There is no humanitarian motive because armies can’t help with germs, there is no financial motive because any resources those countries have are in western hands anyway, and there is no geopolitical goal because that area of the world is of no strategic value whatsoever. The defense industry are busy getting rich off the new drone market and salivating over the thought of how much they will make when the ISIS and Russia situations go pear shaped so they don’t care either.
It’s all in your head.
Is it any wonder its spreading…. look at all those people in the first picture!! If anyone of them walks over the area where that body is, they could pick up the virus from excreted fluids and track it around the place!!!!!!
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say