The people of Mullingar just as important as Barack Obama

Well so says Leinster Rugby coach Joe Schmidt, who returned "home" to Mullingar just 48 hours after winning the Heineken Cup, having first journeyed here to Mullingar in the early nineties to become the Club's first professional player coach.Within twenty minutes of the arrival of the European Champion's coach in Con Gilsenan's on Monday evening, where he met with his former team mates and players, the Dominick Street pub was packed to the gills with old friends and well wishers.Following the Leinster side's remarkable fightback in a thrilling Heineken Cup 33-22 triumph over Northampton on Saturday, Joe told the Westmeath Examiner why Mullingar people are just as important to him, and maybe even more, than the President of America, Barack Obama."I'm catching up with all the guys, John Fagan and Ned Fagan, who are part of the reason why I'm here in Ireland and why I'm back here in Mullingar, we've still got great friends that we made almost 20 years ago now," a beaming Joe Schmidt told the Westmeath Examiner.To read more see this week's edition of the Westmeath Examiner.