'Not only did he make the world more interesting, he made it a better place'

In a telephone call a couple of weeks ago, an audibly weakened Barney Curley spoke of the diagnosis of incurable, and spreading, cancer. Doctors had offered treatment that might prolong his life. While there was some doubt as to whether he would be well enough to take the treatment, Barney was minded to reject it anyway.

Facing death, as always throughout his remarkable life, Barney, was doing things his way. “I have made my peace with God,” he said. Seconds later, again typically, he switched the conversation to the fact a shipping container packed with medical equipment was nearly ready to be transported to Zambia under the auspices of Direct Aid For Africa, the charity he founded and to which he devoted so much of his later life.

We sometimes tell each other when people die that we will never see their like again. Rarely can that have been more true than in the case of Bernard Joseph Curley.