Come on! Join the project to prepare a CD as Pádraig’s Christmas present with songs proposed by you, his friends, songs that meant something to you in 2018, songs that he (and I) might have missed because we’re not getting out enough… AND, let us know WHY you’re proposing it! – If you’re not the type who is out there discovering new stuff, send me a link to your most favourite song, an old reliable!

Share your songs in the comment section (just to have them all in one place …and I’ll let you know the songs that made the CD! (They will all make it.)

Here’s no. 1 on the list from Brenda:

Music is so powerful, so this is a wonderful project you’re taking on. I’m too old to be “hip,” but I heard this song (“Go Left” by Radiant Children) this year, and it just lit me up, so I’m sharing this with you and Padraig. Maybe one or both of you will like it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUaCRQ8NFtE

Well, I think: nobody listening to this kind of music is too old. Just saying…

And here is no. 2, a fantastic song from the boys from Athy, Picture This, with This Christmas. 

“I hope that you find love
And all you’re dreaming of
This Christmas
And I hope that you find peace
And your mind is at ease
This Christmas, this Christmas”

Today, we went to the launch of Dublin City University’s Ability Project supporting people with disabilities to get back into the work place. The President of DCU was there, Finian McGrath (Minister for Disability), the CEO of St Michael’s House, and Joanne O’Riordan, the young woman from Cork who, some years ago, managed to get a speaking slot at the UN General Assembly, in her wheelchair and all. She made the point that her parents had to fight to get the right support for her since the day she was born. She said she like fighting as long as it helped those coming after her. She also said that we didn’t need more experts using big words but people on the ground who really cared. – There we have something in common.

As it happens, today is the 2018 International Day of Persons with Disabilities – IDPD a day, of which António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, said: “On this International Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to work together for a better world that is inclusive, equitable and sustainable for everyone, where the rights of people with disabilities are fully realized.”

This years theme for the IDPC is: “Empowering persons with disabilities and ensuring inclusiveness and equality”. 

The UN connects the IDPC with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. I really love this quote:

The 2030 Agenda, pledging to “leave no one behind,” is an ambitious plan of action of the international community towards a peaceful and prosperous world, where dignity of an individual person and equality among all is applied as the fundamental principle, cutting across the three pillars of the work of the United Nations: Development, Human Rights and Peace and Security. It is critical to ensure, in this regard, the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and create enabling environments by, for and with persons with disabilities.

The abandonment of young (and older) persons with a severe acquired brain injury (sABI): 60-80% misdiagnosis in cases of persons in a permanent vegetative state, ‘maintenance’ programmes for people with severe acquired brain injuries in nursing homes until they eventually die, a complete lack of a rehabilitation programmes in the community, a neurological rehabilitation strategy that is now seven years old and has not a chance of ever being implemented…

… leaves all those with a sABI behind.

I rest my case.