Episode 6 I Lár an Aonaigh

APPLAUSE

HE PLAYS GLASS

TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS

Up, down.

Exercise is really important for people with Parkinson's.

And they've found that music is also really important,

so the beat of the actual music for set dancing

really helps the people with Parkinson's to get back that rhythm

that they've lost. Most people think of Parkinson's as

an older person's disease and somebody who shakes,

so, for me, I don't have a tremor.

My body sometimes moves a little bit more fluidly than others, but that's

as a result of the medication, not as a result of the Parkinson's.

So, for me, freezing gait is my worst symptom.

That's when I basically get locked in my own body

and get completely paralysed.

And that can happen three or four times a day.

Who put the two together?

So, the set dancing was put together by Daniel Volpe,

who's an Italian neurologist who lives in Venice.

And he comes to Ireland on his holidays quite a bit

and likes traditional music and traditional dancing,

so he was in a pub one night, as you do,

and he saw a gentleman who he knew had Parkinson's because

Daniel Volpe is actually a movement disorder specialist himself,

specialising in Parkinson's.

So he saw this gentleman walk onto the floor

with very obvious Parkinsonian traits.

And once the music started,

the gentleman then started to be able to dance.

So, he knew there was something about that.

So, he went back to Venice, found out there was set-dancing classes in Venice, believe it or not...

-Set dancing in Venice?

-Absolutely, yeah.

And then, which I think is fantastic, is he went and learned how to set-dance.

So, he went and began to understand what was going on for the people,

and then he did research on it.

And I think that's the really most important piece of any of this,

is that if you experience something, you can then really talk about it

because it's a learned outcome that you'll get from the actual project.

So it's great, really good.

And you're going to let me join in?

-Absolutely, love to. And you as well?

-For sure, yeah.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC PLAYS

Move that hand now. Up.

Raise that hand up.

Keep it up.

Up, down.

And hold. Forward, back.

And up.

Last time! Well done, everybody.

APPLAUSE

# When I was a young lad

# I worked as a postal boy

# In a slick navy outfit

# I cycled all day and night

# Now I'm a young man

# It's time for a new plan

# Down by the schoolhouse

# At the corner of Mount Street Bridge

# The crack of a bullet

# Echoes from the Surgeon's College

# And here by the canal

# A silence descends like death

# Little do some know

# They're about to draw their final breath

# Officer Rigby

# Screams for a forward march

# For a well-drilled army

# A handful of firebrands can be no match

# But if there's a God in the Heavens

# He'll protect me and my friends

# For we've been good Christians

# Hard-working Britons

# And when the day is done

# My time will come

# But not yet for I've so much to do

# Fall in love, settle down

# Start a family

# Watch them grow up to be like me

# Or their beautiful mother Or a mix of both

# I don't mind, once they're healthy I'll keep them safe

# Just let me get past this bridge I don't wanna be here

# I'm crippled with fear I'm frozen and frightened

# Now the deafening silence

# The silence is killing me. #