Patrick

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Been to the funeral today of a good acquaintance of mine, Patrick, who has died at the too-young age of fifty-nine, and whilst I knew him only in a way peripherally, we got on well, and I have known him on and off since he was a teenager, back in the early eighties. He was an all-round good guy, one of the first out gay men in Bangor, and someone who put his socialist - although he probably would have shied away from being pigeonholed as such - politics into practice, with voluntary work for The Samaritans, and later with offender rehabilitation, working with NACRO. Always a staunch opponent of injustice and corruption and supporter of those least able to defend themselves, I think he was a man on the side of the angels. God speed, youth.


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