Eddie Jordan gets honorary OBE

MOTOR SPORT:EDDIE JORDAN was sitting in a Lisbon café having a late lunch a couple of hours before Chelsea's Champions League game on Wednesday when the call came through. The UK's Foreign Commonwealth website was saying he was to be given an honorary OBE from the Queen.

Although he had been sounded out last month as to whether he would accept such an honour, it still didn’t ring true.

“I said, ‘You’re having a laugh’. I thought it was a joke. There had been an email a few weeks ago asking if I would accept if nominated and I said ‘absolutely, I would’. But I kind of forgot about it because I was away at the grands prix in Australia and Malaysia and so on.

“So I thought it was a joke and when we checked the website, it didn’t seem to be on it so I presumed it was. But then we found it. I couldn’t be more delighted.

“I had no hesitation whatsoever in accepting it. It’s an honorary award and I am absolutely delighted to be given it. I was party a little bit to the welcome the Queen had in Ireland last year, which was an outstanding success. This doesn’t happen to many Irish people.

“Terry Wogan spent all his life here. Terry is a knight but I think he had to take out nationality to get it. But because this is honorary, there’s no question of me being asked to do that.”

He hasn’t had time yet to be appraised of the ins and outs of what needs to be done ahead of accepting the honour. It will involve a trip to the palace, most likely some time in June.

“It won’t be the first time I’ve met Her Majesty,” Jordan said. “I was part of the welcoming party in Dublin last year and I’ve played golf with Andrew at some charity events as well. You get sucked into doing these things and most of them are a real pleasure.”

Irish people thus honoured include jockey Pat Eddery, actor Pierce Brosnan and fashion designer Orla Kiely. Arsene Wenger has one, and Henry Winkler, the Fonz in Happy Days.

It’s far from the first honour that has come Jordan’s way in recognition of his services to sport and charity. Honorary doctorates from the University of Ulster and Dublin Institute of Technology have been bestowed upon him and he is an honorary Musketeer in France as well.

If nothing else, the OBE allows him some sort of bragging rights when he runs into Bob Geldof, himself an honorary knight.

“I obviously get slagged off by Geldof when we see each other at the Chelsea games. So next time I can slag him off.”