My journey began at 1 am on Monday, 24th of March, when I looked in once more on my two kids, Féilim and Martha, as they slept, then kissed my wife, Mary, goodbye before heading east to the airport. We had to be there by 4.45 so I skipped the sleep part, having caught a wee kip during the day. I got there by 4.20 and lo and behold I was the first to get there and for a change, I was on time. We had all congregated at the check-in desk with all our gear by 4.45 but there was still one of the gang missing. Isn’t it always the case that the nearest person to the airport is always the last to arrive! Stephen Hickey was catching up on some beauty sleep and sure doesn’t he need it all!!

John Finn did the biz and got us checked-in in double quick time and it was time for the off. It’s great isn’t it how the airlines always put the wheelchair passengers right at the back of the plane and that’s where I landed. I didn’t manage to catch up on my lost sleep during the flight to Amsterdam but I did on the bus journey from there to Lommel, therefore I missed out on the beautiful countryside of Holland and Belgium.

The teams were staying at the Centre Parcs Holiday resort. We were the first team to arrive and we checked in to be given the keys to our two chalets. The Belgians called them cottages but we preferred our Jimmy’s version, the shallies. The only problem was that they gave us two of the furthest chalets away from the reception. It was a good mile of a push, sure we were nearly in Holland by the time we’d pushed to them, but they were grand and comfy. So we split the team up into the two chalets, 4 wheelchairs in each. Then we headed to the food market for some lunch. To say that the service was on the slow side would be kind to them and it’s no exaggeration on my part when I say that it was nearer to dinner time when we eventually got our food (sure it was only a pizza). The lads spent the evening in the chalets after our dinner while I had to attend a team managers meeting with our coach, Martin Baxter. The meeting was to inform us on what was required of us in the following days with classification of players and the checking of rugby chairs high on the agenda. I reckon that I was asleep before my head hit the pillow that night and as I was sharing a room with John Finn, the two aul’ fellas slept soundly.