Cílán Doyle

That was the idea.

Two of us, yeah.

Students, young, young.

Head off into the darkest part of West Africa, if you like.

And I mean dark in the sense of unknown, unexplored.

To darken the sense, it was that unknown path that no foreigners had ever, ever visited this area, ever before.

So they had never seen a foreign person, a European, an American, an Australian, and let alone a redhead Irishman.

So it was a huge undertaking and we just had no idea where we could possibly get funding.

Like there was no internet back then, there was no email, there was no mobile phone.

So you were just literally shooting in the dark, did the radio interview and went off and I think about two hours later...

somebody from the switchboard in the university came to our class and said there was a phone call from the Park Kenny show.

Again, that was the only way of contacting.

So we then went back and it was agreed at a certain time that there'd be a phone call made and it turns out that there was a company in Ireland who had listened to the interview and they rang and they wanted to talk to us and that basically set the whole thing rolling.

Now, this company had an interest in a particular thing that you might find in this part of Africa.

Exactly.

So they make a product that's a clarifying agent in beer.

So it clears beer.

And what they use, they use fish collagen, okay?

So collagen, fish collagen, every fish has an organ called a swim bladder.

And it's like their lungs.