When I’m in my stride there’ll be no stoppin’ me.
Paul Noonan, No Stopping Me

One of Pádraig’s favourite bands is Bell X1 with lead singer Paul Noonan. Paul and Daithí started HousePlants, a great new group Pádraig is exploring. They literally are electrifying.

No Stopping Me starts slow, but when Paul hits his stride, there is no stopping him. It looks like a low quality amateur recording of a Cork concert which is probably why it captures the determination and energy of the song and the performer so well.

You say to be careful. No, don’t go all in. – My shirt wide open. Flapping like wings. Like wings behind me.

Like most weeks, last week just flew by.

Pádraig went to see Foil, Arms, and Hog with one of his best friends. Doomdah!

It was a fantastic evening. The lads even came out for a picture and apparently were really chatty and friendly.

We had another fantastic evening at the Lord Mayor of Dublin’s home, the Mansion House, where the An Saol Foundation celebrated this year’s Adventfest. Rather than replicating the pictures from that evening here, check out the Gallery prepared by the incredible Isabella, an An Saol Foundation intern from Boston University and originally from El Paso. Yes, THE El Paso.

It was a great night, with food and drink provided by the Lord Mayor, and with music and poetry by famous Irish trad musician Maitiú Ó Casaide, the incredible Lighthouse Project singers from Finglas, journalist and poet Vincent Woods, and the unique Colm Ó Snodaigh of KILA fame.

One of the highlights of the evening took place next door, sharing the entrance to the Mansion House with us, where Bank of Ireland had not spared any expense to host their annual gala. They had a special blue carpet and tunnel entering the building where hundreds of photographs must have been taken and where special drummers in kilts provided the backdrop outside, as all their glamorous employees arrived. Even Baz Ashmawy, one of Ireland’s best-known TV presenters joined them.

As all the glamorous Bank of Ireland lads in their tuxedos and evening gowns were arriving and walking up the stairs to the grand entrance of the Mansion House, on a very cold and windy night, the tiny wheelchair lift beside the stairs broke – and nobody was able to fix it. The ushers blamed ‘a person’ who had pressed the wrong button and broke it.

Where two worlds collide

We managed to carry some wheelchairs and their passengers up the stairs. The motorised chairs had to be brought up through a side entrance of the restaurant. There was nothing stoppin’ us once we were in our stride!

The scene was ready for national TV, the next news show, and Talk to Joe.

Some of Ireland’s richest bankers passing by wheelchair users on their way to the home of Dublin’s Lord Mayor, stranded on a cold, windy night at the bottom of the stairs.

You couldn’t have made it up.

A good friend and contributor on the night mentioned the word Maverick.

When I looked up the word, I read that a maverick describes a person who thinks independently. A maverick refuses to follow the customs or rules of a group to which he or she belongs. A maverick is often admired for his or her free spirit.

Perhaps, this is what Pádraig and his fellow brain injured friends are. Mavericks.

They have refused to be locked up in a nursing home, clean and fed. With their free spirit, they will overcome any obstacles. Even the stairs at the bottom of the Mansion House where they got stuck because someone pressed a wrong button.

Every day, they celebrate life. With a spirit of hope and new beginnings. In the face of great adversity.

When we’re in our stride there’ll be no stoppin’ us.

We’ll go all in. Shirts wide open. Flapping like wings.