An app focusing on the link between Parkinson’s disease treatments and music could soon be available to sufferers as a result of breakthrough Irish research.

THE Italian and Irish flags were draped side by side in Feakle, Co Clare, as a capacity crowd squeezed into the community hall to witness a small miracle.

It’s great to see traditional Irish music finding its place in the world of science and medicine renowned fiddler, Martin Hayes said yesterday after a group of Italian and Irish people with Parkinson’s disease thrilled a crowd at a packed Feakle Community Centre by set dancing to a few reels.

An Italian doctor who saw the positive effect of set dancing on an Irishman with Parkinson’s disease, turned his observation into an international study whose findings will be presented this week in Co Clare.

MUSIC and dance have long been believed to possess transformative powers, from Turkish spinning dervishes dancing to elevate their souls, to African tribal healers stomping in frenzied trances to cure illness.