Noel O’Cleirigh 
Recollections of Uganda Under Milton Obote and Idi Amin 

In this book the writer describes life in Uganda as seen through the eyes of an expatriate civil servant employed by the Ministry of Education. He gives the reader an insight into a newly independent country transforming its colonial style education system through its Africanization policies, some of which he inaugurated and helped to implement. A former member of Professor George Eogan’s Excavation Team at Knowth in The Boyne Valley, he continued his interest in this discipline while living in East Africa and presents vivid pen pictures of some of the archaeological field trips and surveys he carried out on behalf of the Department of Antiquities of the Uganda Museum.

The book also deals with the history and tribal customs of the Baganda and Langi people as well as describing some of the memorable people encountered by the author……….the veteran CMS Missionary Phebe Cave-Brown-Cave……..Jacobo Obote, the father of Uganda’s President Milton Obote…….the saintly Archbishop Luwum…..the formidable Mrs Enim, mother-in-law of the infamous Idi Amin………

The events recounted by Noel O’Cleirigh throughout the pages of this book are set in East Africa amid a backdrop of President Obote’s brand of African Socialism and General Idi Amin’s Military Coup d’Etat and subsequent Reign of Terror.

About the author

Mr. Noel O’Cleirigh studied English and Archaeology at University College Dublin and is a graduate of The National University of Ireland. He undertook post-graduate studies in Educational Administration (Maynooth) and in Linguistics ( Dublin and London). A Member of l’Association Internationale de Linguistique Applique, The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland and the RDS, he is also a past President of Arklow Historical Society.

His career in Education included service in East Africa, The Middle East and Ireland where he worked for County Wicklow VEC up to his retirement as Vice-Principal of Arklow Community College.

He has lectured widely on historical and archaeological topics, given occasional radio talks including contributions to RTE’s Aeriris Programme. He has also had articles published in The Journal of Arklow Historical Society, The People Newspaper Group, The Link and The Irish Times. The Royal Irish Academy awarded him an Eoin O’Mahony Bursary for his research on The History of The O’Cleirigh Family, a monograph on which was subsequently published by the SociŽtŽ des ƒcrivains, Paris.