Right now, I'm in the process of varnishing some recently completed commissioned paintings. The one is of Bray Harbour and is a large piece measuring 120 cm x 90 cm.
I really loved working on this painting. I started it last autumn, and using a new medium for me, acrylic ink.
The available colours are luscious and vibrant and they flow in extraordinary ways.
Today, I cycled in my first St Patrick's Day parade. It was also a first, I think, for Newcastle village where I live.
A motley crew was hastily gathered to follow the the1954 Massey Ferguson bedecked with festive flags. Most of us were in our pyjamas 20 minutes before, so it was quite the lesson in organisation to see how it all came together.
As I cycled up the road, I met my neighbours ( (in a socially distant way)), In an instant, I was catapulted back 40 years.
In 1981, The International Year of The Disabled, I was invited by a state agency with responsibility for disabled people to participate in the St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin, using a tandem, under the banner 'We Can Do It Together'.
By that time, I was already a familiar sight around the city on my bicycle with two empty sleeves flying in the wind. I created quite the spectacle
My bicycle was an elegant, two-wheel racing machine. The racing handlebars return slightly upwards at an angle of 45°. Into those handlebars was fitted and aluminium frame. It looked pretty much like the handlebars on a pram. This device allowed me to steer the bicycle, and together with a backpedal brake, I was ready to take on the city that was beset with bus strikes. As a mode of transport, it attracted a lot of attention and this attention resulted in my invitation to participate in the St Patrick's Day parade.
At that time, I was a student in art college and not yet 20 years old, but I really knew that in the circumstances, I needed to be in the driving seat. The state agency with the tandem, would not hear of it. I was as adamant then as I would be now - I don't see myself as a passenger.
It was as clear to me then that as disabled people we need to be leading the way when it comes to solving issues that affect us deeply.
Forty years ago as a teenager, I thought this ought to have been also evident to the agency set up to support us live self-determined, independent lives. But clearly, it wasn't.
I recall the almost total incredulity that I was not cooperating. The agency was fairly lacking in any comprehension as to what my difficulty might be. For myself, it was clear that it was far from co-operation they had in mind (It felt more like conscription).
I even suggested that we cycle two independent bicycles under the banner but it didn't happen.
So, yesterday, after 40 years I finally got to cycle in the St Patrick's Day parade.
Now my bicycle has got three wheels. It is a recumbent machine built for speed and so I had no trouble keeping up with Billy on the 1954 tractor or my neighbour Ruth with Winnie, the Wonderful Falabella. Keeping up with Ruth and Raz's little ones proved to be the real challenge.
St Patrick's Day Parade Newcastle, Wicklow
