Kieran's Bread article and the excellent discussion that followed got me thinking about Ron Gilligan, a Blue I met just once in a bar in New York's Greenwich Village the best part of 23 years ago.

Mr Dennehy's was at the time the favourite haunt of Blues fans in Manhattan and was always open for Everton games no matter what time they kicked off.  This particular Saturday, I had wandered down from my Midtown hotel for I think a mid-morning kick-off.  I shared a table with another solo punter and we both ordered a full Irish (basically a full English with 2 pints of Guinness on the side).  I got on so well with my fellow Blue that details of the match have almost gone, pretty sure it was a 2-1 home win against Leicester.

At the end, we stayed on for a few more pints of the black stuff and, on leaving, he invited me to lunch the next time I was in New York City, at the Windows on the World restaurant in the World Trade Centre North Tower.  We exchanged numbers and email.  Regrettably, that was the only time we met as he was killed in the 9/11 attacks (22nd anniversary yesterday), his office being on the 103rd floor of the North Tower.

The reason the Bread thread reminded me of him was because of his accent.  Although he had lived in the US for more than 20 years he had been born and brought up in Liverpool and during the match his scouse accent returned when he got excited. It shone through his Brooklyn, Upstate New York tones and made me smile then as it does now.  There was no doubt where he came from.

I have seen Ron's name on the Memorials at Ground Zero and Grosvenor Square and think of him fondly on 9/11 each year.  So please raise a glass, guys, to a True Blue, who could not hide his origins, not that he wanted to.