Posted on 17th Mar
A caretaker at HC-One’s Bowbridge Court Care Home in Newark has been sharing his Irish dancing talents with residents in celebration of St Patrick’s Day.
Patrick Brock, better known as ‘Paddy, who was 65 on 16th March, ahead of St Patrick’s Day, is a caretaker at Bowbridge Court Care Home.
Patrick was born in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin in Ireland and is a true Irishman who loves a pint of Guinness and has a love of Irish dancing.
He has lived in Newark for the last ten years after moving to England in January 2017. Paddy’s parents enrolled him on Irish dancing lessons at the age of eight and he continued to dance throughout his younger years at a dance school.
Paddy soon picked up the ability for Irish dancing and continued to pursue it throughout his school years. As well as Irish dancing, Paddy also took up the hobby of Irish football as a child.
At the age of 13, Paddy entered his first Irish dancing competition, the World Irish Dancing Championships, which was won Michael Flatley, who is better known as Lord of the Dance, in 1975.
However, as Paddy was getting ready to go on stage, he saw Michael Flatley perform first and, after seeing how good he was, Paddy decided to withdraw from performing in the competition, stating that he did not feel as though he would be able to beat Michael.
To this day, Paddy has regretted this decision and wishes he had gone on stage to perform. A man of many talents, he now partakes in doing Neil Diamond tributes at home, but no longer performs in public for anyone except his family.
Paddy is no longer able to carry out Irish dancing but still loves performing and singing. Paddy likes to keep residents living at Bowbridge Court entertained by telling them stories from his days of Irish dancing.
“It was good fun – the best part of my dancing days was definitely the music! I made some long-term friends from doing Irish dancing and I can’t wait to go back to Ireland to visit,” he said.
Debbie Cook, Bowbridge Court Care Home manager, added: “Paddy is a very talented man and has a side to his personality that we don’t all see, which is his performative side. Paddy loves a pint of Guinness, so maybe we can all celebrate his birthday by having a pint of Guinness or two and we might get him dancing again.”
