Remembering the Berlin Wall, and Jim Collins

On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, celebrated yesterday, it is appropriate to mark once again the Kilcullen connection to the event, writes Brian Byrne.

The late Jim Collins and his brother John happened to be in the area — well, 600 kilometres away in Cologne, actually — when they heard the news. They persuaded a German friend to drive them to Berlin to see what was going on.

The result was the eventual arrival of a genuine piece of the wall to Kilcullen. As told on the Diary a decade ago, the full story is here.

Jim passed away in June 2018.

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