“This place has been a meeting place for centuries, now Manchán’s spirit will be here.” David Clarke, the landowner.

Big crowds turn up at funerals. The month’s mind is something much more intimate. Something for the closest family.

In this case, the family was huge.

More than 2,000 people turned up for Manchán’s month’s mind. On a wet, windy, sunny day full of hail stones and surprises: an all-in-all magical day in County Westmeath on top of a hill, called the Navel of Ireland. There was a druid from Kerry, a Cree First Nation Schumann from Canada, a dozen of Ireland’s best musicians, a few of Pádraig’s friends (we had had no idea we’d meet them there), dozens of people providing shelter, cover, wheelchair pulling and pushing support through the fields and up to the top of the hill – and thousands of the best, friendliest, warmest, and kindest people, all brought together by Manchán.

It’s impossible to catch what happened there yesterday in words or in pictures.

The people were incredible and out of the world we have become accustomed to.

The gathering gave me hope. There is peace and love. Beir bua agus beannacht.

Pádraig was not just turning heads. He turned his own head. And he is getting brilliant at it. With a little help from his friends.

I tried to keep up with Pádraig and finished last week’s Dublin Marathon. Also with a little help and encouragement from my friends. It was an effort that proved to me that the impossible is possible if you keep at it and don’t give up. Even if it might feel like the most sensible option along the way. In the end, everybody crossing the line is a winner. Because we are all immensely privileged to be able to do this. Through wind and rain. Against the odds.

What kept me going was the thought of Pádraig who keeps trying and keeps winning.

What he is managing to do is nothing short of sensational.

Alaska might be the last frontier.

But Pádraig has gone far beyond it.

As Eddie Vedder sang in “Rise”, Such is the way of the world, you can never know / Just where to put all your faith, and how will it grow.

We felt it yesterday on Uisneach. An ancient feeling and a connection with the earth and all and everybody around us. There is a strength of the good, of love, that will keep us going forever. There are no odds. There is no doubt.

When Liam Ó Maonlaí sang We can see clearly now the rain is gone yesterday – the clouds magically disappeared, the rain stopped, and there was nothing but blue sky.

Magic? The power of Manchán? Of us!