We need to challenge assumption mental health is some dark secret

I SPENT a good deal of last weekend at the Special Olympic Games in Limerick. And a glorious weekend it was. A wonderful, intimate, family-focused opening ceremony on Thursday night was followed by three days of intense competition in the variety of sports in which Special Olympic athletes compete. A lot of the Games was centred on the University of Limerick campus, and the place couldn’t have been more welcoming.

Most of my time, I have to admit, was spent following a series of nail-biting basketball matches. The standard was incredibly high and every match was a fiercely contested encounter. I have to declare an interest because my daughter Mandy was a member of the Eastern Regional team.

Mandy is getting to the stage where she’s like one of those experienced old pros. You know what I mean — she doesn’t run or challenge so much anymore, although she can still bag a mean basket when the ball comes to her handy. But she has a can-do attitude, an ability to shrug when things don’t go well, and she’s great for morale. Anyway, at the end of it all, Eastern took gold, just pipping a plucky Ulster team in the final. And the rest of us could relax. It will take a week for my fingernails to recover.