HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALBERT
It's nowhere near Albert Folens's birthday and Albert left this world almost twenty years ago.
But some birthday presents involve a lot of work and need time to mature. So, hopefully, when his birthday arrives, Albert will get a present he would have very much appreciated when he was alive.
But what's this about me and Albert Folens? Well, Albert was my French teacher in Coláiste Mhuire and I am grateful to him for giving me an interest in the French language and the capacity to make something of it later on.
Another time, this post would have ended here, but too much has happened since for me to run away now.
For the avoidance of doubt, let me state the following. Albert Folens was a Flemish patriot. In fact, the risks he took for his country, and here I mean Flanders not Belgium, were extraordinary.
During the Second World War, and in its immediate aftermath, he risked his life for his Flemish countrymen.
His reward: being dragged through the mud in Ireland, a country that had welcomed him as a refugee, by a journalist who made wild and unsubstantiated allegations and innuendo against him. This was wrong and it remains a stain on Ireland, its national broadcaster, and all involved in the RTÉ programme which broadcast these baseless allegations.
More recently, RTÉ added insult to injury, describing the principal journalist concerned as "an informed journalist and an author of integrity".
De tijd zal het leren.
De waarheid zal uitkomen.
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