Sometimes you bump into someone you were probably destined to be friends with, it just takes about 25 years for the timing to work itself out!

Áine and I first crossed paths all those years ago in college, and somehow disability advocacy brought us back into each other’s orbit.

And now she has sparked another idea for me: guest bloggers.

Every now and again, I’m going to hand this little corner of the internet over to someone else and let them share their story, thoughts or perspective.

So, who better to be my very first guest blogger than Áine from Wexford Disabled Persons Organisation?

She travelled to Ballina for Expanding Horizons and afterwards sent me this.

Honestly, it made my eyes leak.

I won’t say anything more because Áine says it far better than I could.

Over to you, Áine…

Perhaps Possibility Can Travel

I arrived in Ballina on Friday 24 July 2026 not knowing the town particularly well and knowing very few people there.

That didn’t matter.

I had travelled to Mayo to support Avril, Chairperson of the Mayo DPO, and her Expanding Horizons initiative. I was curious to see what she had created. I came away with much more than I expected.

And what a way to begin—with music.

Cuimsiú, an inclusive traditional Irish music initiative, opened the evening. The musicians were exceptionally talented, but it was more than their ability that caught my attention. Their personalities seemed to shine through their playing, and each could hold the stage in their own right.

One of the musicians was Fionn Crombie Angus, who would later join the panel. Hearing him play the fiddle was my first introduction to him, and the music simply carried you away.

I felt alive. I felt calm. I felt welcome.

Avril was MC for the evening and seemed completely at home. Although she was on the stage, it never felt as though she was above the room. The stage was simply there so we could hear her. She spoke to people in the audience as well as to the panel, and that personal connection seemed to set the tone for the evening.

The panel included Amanda McGuinness of Flourish Autism Consultancy, and Fionn and his father Jonathan, who together run Fionnathan Productions.

There were serious discussions about education, healthcare, transport and the political and social issues affecting disabled people. There was plenty of information and lived experience.

But what stayed with me wasn’t a statistic or a particular policy point.

It was the connection between people.

Amanda told a simple story about someone struggling at a self-service checkout while the queue behind them was becoming impatient. Amanda paused, offered some patience and asked if they needed help. A potentially stressful and embarrassing situation was resolved simply because someone took the time to help.

It made me think about how often we could do the same in everyday life: pause, take a breath and notice when somebody is struggling.

Fionn and Jonathan introduced the audience to a word I’d never heard before: pronoia—the feeling that perhaps things are working in your favour rather than against you.

Fionn seems to embody it.

There was something about being around him that made me think about my own horizons and what else I might do. He made me feel that perhaps I could be a little more ambitious about my own life.

That seems particularly appropriate at an event called Expanding Horizons.

I had first come across Avril almost 25 years ago, when we briefly attended the same college. I remember noticing her then—surrounded by people, engaged with everyone, smiling and completely at ease.

Twenty-five years later, our paths crossed again, this time through disability advocacy. There was something rather lovely about that.

As the evening came to an end, I was sitting on my own when I noticed another woman sitting alone. I moved up beside her and we started talking. Her name was Kathleen, a friend of Avril’s mother, Deirdre. Within minutes, we were chatting as though we’d known each other much longer.

Later, I discovered that Deirdre had done something very similar for someone else that evening. A man told me he didn’t know anyone there. Deirdre didn’t know him either, but simply went and sat beside him. They struck up a conversation; the connection was made and socialising began.

It didn’t seem to matter that they were strangers.

By the end, the room felt almost like somebody’s kitchen, with neighbours dropping in for tea.

And perhaps that is what I took from the evening most of all.We talk a lot about inclusion. We talk about barriers, systems, attitudes and accessibility. All of those things matter.

But connection matters too.

When you meet someone who has experienced something similar to you, information becomes easier to share. You exchange experiences, ideas and practical knowledge. Sometimes you simply discover that you are not alone.

I left Ballina thinking about how I might bring some of that feeling home with me.

As we begin new initiatives in Wexford, I hope we can hold on to that sense of openness and connection. We won’t always be in the same room. We’ll meet through Zoom, through ILMI and through the wider DPO network, across counties and communities.

But perhaps the feeling doesn’t have to stay in Ballina just because we have left the room.

What Avril has created in Mayo doesn’t have to stay in Mayo. Perhaps one county can see what another has done and think:

We could do this too.

Perhaps possibility can travel.