News of the death yesterday of Cuba's longtime revolutionary leader Fidel Castro brought forth tributes and critiques in equal measure. Having firmly stated that he would not die until America was finished, Castro's prophesy appears to have come true with the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency.
Amongst those with memories of the heady 1960s were a keen group of Thrupiecistras who yesterday used the occasion of the great leader's passing to recall the 1967 Cuban Conference when, led by "El Gran Profesor" the RSCBE held its annual meeting in Havana.
The Conference marked a turning point in international relations, easing tensions only four years after the infamous "Bay of Pigs" when Professor Thrupiece and a small band of English farmworkers had tried to land six Gloucester Old Spots on a deserted Cuban beach in the hope of improving the quality of livestock on the embattled island.
"Those were heady days" commented Thrupiece relative and Dorset Historical Romance Association veteran Edna Whisky-McNightly. "Everything seemed possible and yet almost nothing was. Who amongst us truly knew the fragility of rubberised landing craft?"
A Gloucester Old Spot lies marooned in the sand during the now infamous Bay of Pigs Escapade
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