Scouting Ireland’s third and biggest jamboree, was held in Portumna Forest Park in 1985. I was aged 17 and a Scout Leader, so I helped to organise activities. Leaders were identified by this distinctive neckerchief, which was blue, red and yellow. This colour scheme was created especially for this particular jamboree. A huge crowd of 10,000 attended, including scouts from all over Ireland and 23 different countries. I was into technology and I knew that Space Shuttle Challenger was being launched around that time. I also knew that the Shuttle Captain, C. Gordon Fullerton, was an Eagle Scout so I arranged to contact him by radio as the shuttle was passing overhead on 4 August. Being in the west of Ireland we had a 30 second window to be the first Europeans to contact him! As he came over the curve of the globe after passing over the Atlantic Ocean we were the first land he encountered so the first opportunity for contact.
