The 'Package from Home'

When you are miles away from home, there is nothing nicer than a nice cuppa and a chocolate treat!

And nobody knows this better than jet-setting Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin.

In between meeting his counterparts from all over the world, he has proven that you can take the man out of Cork but you can’t take the Cork out of the man!

So ‘twas no wonder that on a recent trip to the remote and sinister South Ossetian border in Georgia that he decided to bring a bit of Cork with him.

Ireland currently has four EU monitors in the area as part of an EU-wide mission to ensure that the peace agreement, concluded after August’s bloody war in the region, is maintained.

The four monitors pulled out all the stops to ensure that our Minister was well briefed on the situation along the border and even took him to the border checkpoint in sight of armed Russian troops just yards away.

Thankfully, Micheal Martin fared better at the border last Friday than the Georgian President Mikael Saakashvili and Polish President Lach Kaczynski fared just 48 hours later as their motorcade was shot at by Russian troops!

But when all the formalities were over and done with, Micheal Martin showed that he was a Cork man at heart and produced, as he called. ‘the package from home’ for the four Irish stationed in Georgia.

And what did that ‘package from home’ consist of? A fine big box of Barry’s Tea (he is from Cork, of course) and a traditional Irish treat – the selection box!!

So when the dark, cold evenings close in around our Irish men and women along the South Ossetian border over the coming weeks, at least they’ll have their Barry’s Tea and their selection box to remind them of the comforts of home!!