How Orla’s ‘GoFaster Stick’ chased away lockdown gloom

Who can forget March 2020, when literally everything came to a halt due to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak?

The lockdown affected everyone in different ways, but for now 23-year-old Mullingar girl Orla Keating, it meant a sudden end to services at the Bridge Training Centre in the town.

Everyone was staying at home to curb the spread of the virus, and for a time the only outlet was a walk within two kilometres of home. For Orla, this meant regular jaunts along the Royal Canal at Ballinea with her parents Bob (former principal at St Brigid’s School, Mullingar) and Ann.

One day, while setting out for a walk along the canal bank, Bob handed Orla a stick. “That’ll help you go faster,” he said. It became known immediately to Orla as her ‘Go Faster Stick’.

However, far from becoming a mere aid for long-distance walks, Orla’s stick sparked her imagination, as she conjured meetings with people – some famous, and some from her own life – on her trips along the canal.

On one lockdown stroll, she imagined meeting Niall Horan, who mistook her ‘GoFaster Stick’ for a microphone, and began using it to sing her favourite songs. On another day, she imagined meeting a witch who fancied that the stick was her broom. All of these stories Orla then put down on paper, the culmination of which is her fantastic new book, ‘Orla and the GoFaster Stick’.

“It’s a story about me walking along the canal with my GoFaster stick and my imagination, and the people I meet who think the GoFaster stick is something else,” Orla told the Westmeath Examiner.

Orla’s story was a prize winner in the 2020 Stories from the Waterside Story Writing Competition run by the Local Authority Waters Programme. On the back of that success, the story was reproduced in book form with a foreword by Alan Walsh of the LAWP.

Illustrated by Bron and Tony O’Loughlin and designed by Tara Hartigan, ‘Orla and the GoFaster Stick’ was printed by Triest Press of Roscommon, a social enterprise which provides employment to people with learning difficulties. The book is available online for €12, and proceeds from its sale will go to the Longford-Westmeath branch of Down Syndrome Ireland.

Orla lives at home in Mullingar with her mam and dad, their dog Finn and their 17-year-old goldfish Nemo. She has a sister, Eimear, who is an actor based in Dublin, and her boyfriend is Kevin, who she describes as “handsome”.

She loves watching Mrs Brown’s Boys on television, and does a great impression of Mrs Brown’s (Brendan O’Carroll’s) trademark laugh. A drama enthusiast, she has performed in the Chance to Shine talent competition at Mullingar Arts Centre, and has attended the Dramatics drama group for 15 years under the tutelage of Sarah Nally. She also played recorder with Mullingar Town Band for many years, and is a member of the Shoot ‘n’ Stars Special Olympics Club in Mullingar, with whom she swims, and plays basketball and boccé.

Orla attends the National Learning Network in Athlone, and when she was younger, attended Presentation School and St Brigid’s School in Mullingar. In September she is going to work with the Muiríosa Foundation and will be working in a café in Multyfarnham, serving tea and coffee and cleaning tables.

“Down Syndrome is something I was born with. Sometimes I need extra help but I want to be like everybody else,” says Orla.

When asked what makes her happiest in this world, Orla simply stated: “I am happy myself, and that makes everyone happy.”

Few things make her happier than her favourite hobby of writing books and plays. Her first work was titled, ‘Are You My Favourite’, and is followed by the spectacular ‘Orla and the GoFaster Stick’, which Orla says can be bought at gofasterstick.squarespace.com, or in Mullingar at Just Books and Rochfort’s.

Orla paid tribute to everyone who helped her put the book together, and wanted to say hello to a number of special people: “Hello to Amanda, Fintan, David, David, Stephen, Nora, Tanya and Stevie (my godson); Bríd and Seán, Michelle and Mallory, Kathleen Wiley, everyone in NLN Athlone, everyone in Muiríosa, Shoot ‘n’ Stars Special Olympics Club, Sarah Nally and everyone at Dramatics, and especially Kevin.”