Mullingar’s Bressie.

Mullingar’s Bressie has received an Honorary Fellowship. The Fellowship is from the Royal College of Surgeons. Bressie was awarded this fellowship because of his contribution to mental health advocacy. The ceremony was held from 1st – 2nd March in RCSI.

Speaking on his award “I am sincerely humbled to receive this honorary fellowship from the RCSI Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery. If we are to truly transform the outdated and generational attitudes towards mental health in Ireland it will take a collective response from our health care professionals, those in influence of power and our wider society and we must do so with empathy, sensitivity and humanity”.

Mullingar’s Bressie has been at the fore of mental health awareness and advocacy. Suffering with chronic anxiety during his teenaged years, this anxiety remained through most of his adult life. In addition he co-founded a movement for mental health and well-being in Ireland through a website called A Lust for Life.

Meanwhile as he rehearsed for ‘The Voice of Ireland’, Bressie suffered a serious panic attack. Seeking professional help for the anxiety, he decided to tackle the condition and train for a triathlon. Catipulted from this attack he went public with his struggles. Opening up the stigma around mental health ‘A Lust For Life’ was born. In addition he is a champion for the charity Cycle Against Suicide. Furthermore in 2015 Bressie published his first book ‘‘Me and my Mate Jeffrey’. The book is a combination memoir/self-help book. ‘Jeffrey’ is a personification of Bressie’s anxiety disorder. Furthermore the book won  Irish Book Award for popular non fiction. Bressie participated as a cyclist within Cycle Against Suicide charity cycle fundraisers. Through these cycles he would give talks at local schools.

Music

2016 The Blizzards reformed and are releasing new music. ‘Second Wind’ is the third single released since the reform. Available on iTunes the track was produced by Philip Magee (Kodaline, The Script). It is released by Reckless Records. Playing The Emerald Sounds Festival in London today The Blizzards tour on as they gain ground on their renewed careers. ‘Drop the Anchor’ and ‘Perfect on Paper’ the previous singles to today’s release have had huge amount of air play.

Bressie’s solo career released two albums. 2011 seen the release of ‘Colourblind Stereo’ from which four singles were released. Two years later the follow up ‘Rage & Romance’ which produced many great tracks including the haunting “Silence is Your Saviour”

Finally we would like to wish The Blizzards continued success as we anticipate the new album release. Furthermore a very sincere thanks to Bressie for all his work with mental health awareness…Cheers!