A week of sadness, posturing and joy. The harrowing story of little 12 year old Archie Battersby who lost his right to live yesterday just after midday.
Apparently, on at least one satanic social media platform, there are games to play, challenges to accept and they can brutal. I don’t think anyone knows exactly what happened to Archie to cause such catastrophic brain injuries but it’s thought there was an involvement with Tic Tok but who knows.
Such experiences of ‘play’ must surely be a warning to all parents and young people not to mess with these destructive and manipulating sites. Why are they allowed?
People are still asking why this little body couldn’t be transferred to a hospice then the family could grieve in the loving in more private surrounds. Some times the ‘law is a ass’ other times there are reasons.
Then there’s the spectre of Richie and Liz. Surely he has been schooled in the last two weeks. His demeanour has changed, now bright eyed and bushy tailed manorisims and intonation of a water day Tony blair, head flailing left and right arms windmilling and rictus smile all detract from what he’s saying not that it matters to me, like the majority of people in the UK I have no say in the outcome.
On the other hand Liz just keeps smiling more broadly and talking about hitting the ground running.
The joy has come with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Even in defeat there has been a feeling of camoradory and smiles and hugs between competitors. As Bruce Forsyth would say, good games, good games especially for Northern Ireland with a record medal haul and it’s not over yet.
MISTAKE OF THE WEEK
A world-renowned scientist has been forced to apologise after he shared what he claimed was a stunning picture of a star – and turned out to be a slice of chorizo.
Étienne Klei shared an image of what he said was Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to Earth. He said the picture had been taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, from which a host of stunning images had been revealed in recent weeks.
LOCAL HERO OF INTERNATIONAL FAME
“I was a professional driver paid by the British Motor Corporation and they made it very clear from the start that we were a British team so in all the press reports I was a British driver. But, a few weeks later, when I was caught smuggling a camera through customs in Heathrow, they decided to make a thing of it to put others off trying the same thing and the paper headlines screamed, ‘Irish rally driver caught smuggling’.”
So said Paddy Hopkirk when I interviewed him some years ago, always smiling, a charismatic character. He was a star in our eyes even before he hit the big time winning the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, a constant visitor in Ulster Television whether he was in the news or not. Indeed he caught the eye of one of the stations own stars, Adrienne McGuill as she was in those days, Miss Adrienne to thousands and today wife of the late Harry Catherwood. He taught her to drive and when four of us, all girls, went round Ireland it was breathtaking! The Monte Carlo had nothing on us. Adrienne remembers, “a delightful man, a great raconteur and a good friend.”
When Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964, there was great excitement locally and nationally and indeed, one Sunday night, sitting in his red Mini Cooper S registration 33 EJB, Paddy joined Bruce Forsyth on the revolving stage of the London Palladium. “Only time we ever had a car on the show. Marvellous,” was Bruce’s memory. Paddy never forgot it either and he relived the night,: “Especially because at rehearsals I discovered my hero was on the show, my God, Tommy Cooper, even the musicians were falling off their instruments he was so funny. During transmission, Bruce was in front of the curtains and there’s the noise of a car racing past and the squeal of brakes. ‘Who’s that?’ asks Brucie. ‘Paddy Hopkirk,’ replies his gag man. ‘Why didn’t you stop him?’ ‘I tried to,’ and the gag man turned round to reveal tyre marks right across his back as if he’d been run over. Laughter and applause.”
Paddy warms to the subject. “The curtain goes back and I drive onto the stage and do the interview, then at the end I’m on the revolving stage with the rest of the performers, Tommy Cooper and the Tiller girls.”
The man who first got behind the wheel at nine years of age albeit a bath chair, for the next 80 years competed in rallies, hill climbs and numerous international events, and finished his career involved in the motor industry. He enjoyed fame, admired by the Beatles and as his wife Jennifer was vice Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, he attended many royal events and not surprisingly became a friend of Prince Philip. All his life he won trophies and accolades and for his work was awarded an MBE in 2016. He became a life member of the British Racing Drivers’ Club and president of the Historic Rally Car Register. He was generous with his time and supported many charities, especially as a patron of the disability charity WheelPower.
It was a measure of the man and his co-driver Tony Nash when, in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon, he declined victory to rescue other team members whose cars were in a collision; the two men pulled the drivers to safety before their cars caught fire so saving them from death. Hopkirk and Nash went on to take second place and a lot of appreciation.
“I’d be telling porkies if I said I didn’t love those few days in the limelight, especially when people really want to see you.” It’s said that 28 million viewers tuned in at the height of the Palladium days, nearly half the population of the UK. “It’s funny that after the Palladium show I drove the car to a restaurant and parked it outside and while I was having a meal it was stolen. The guy crashed it in Cromwell Street and I had to go to Bow Street court next day because I was the ‘keeper’ of the vehicle but the ‘thief’ hadn’t actually been trying to steal the Mini, just a young man who couldn’t resist the thrill of driving the winning car in the Monte Carlo Rally!”
He told me he was staggered that the same car was sitting in the Gaydon Motor Museum in Warwickshire valued at around £800,000.
“The Monte Carlo was like winning a gold medal, it wasn’t for the individual it was for your country, it was a nationalistic thing.”
Paddy was our hero. He may have been described as a jovial Irishman but Hopkirk was an aggressive and skilled driver hunched over the wheel in his determination, skidding round the sharp bends, a bank of spotlights blazing although sometimes suffering as they weren’t regulation bulbs, ‘yumping’ in the air over the humps then racing flat out down the icy mountain pass. Technically, Paddy drove a Mini Cooper S with a 1071cc engine. The car was fitted with a lower final drive ratio than standard and after the rally was road tested by several motor magazines. The top speed recorded was approx 93 mph with a 0-60 mph time of 12.0 seconds. He explained that, in the deep snow of the French Alps the Mini Coopers were nimble and benefited from front wheel drive but it was on the last stage at the Grand Prix city track in Monaco that he pushed the machine to its limit and made it home just in front of Bo Ljungfeldt (Sweden), Eric Carlsson (Sweden) and Timo Timo Makinen (Finland) and history was made, the first British win since Ronnie Adams in 1956 and it was our man at the wheel. Paddy Hopkirk remained at the wheel of many beloved Minis for the rest of his life.
This picture of Sean Bean appears because I think he’s the best actor around and I look forward to his new series next week. I once met him on the stairway of the Opera House in Belfast, he was on the way up and I was on the way down so I almost fell into his arms. Did stop and talk for a few moments but so over come with excitement I can remember what was said!
