Cowen hopes to walk daughter down the aisle

Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said that he hopes to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding later this year as he continues his recovery from suffering a stroke and a bleed on the brain in 2019.

The Offaly man said that the goal of walking his daughter down the aisle is something that keeps him “very active.”

Speaking about his recovery following recent health issues on Midlands 103, Cowen said: “I'm able to walk about, if a little slowly. I'm not totally 100% but we're getting there and as I say I have a sort of a family commitment coming up towards the end of the year. My eldest daughter is marrying and we're all delighted about that obviously.”

The Clara native said he is “doing great” after suffering a stroke and brain hemorrhage in 2019 and after which he spent a year in hospital. “The length of time in hospital was a long time. Twelve months is a long time and things happened while I was in hospital. My mother passed on. I was home for the last few days of her life so that was a big change apart from the physical challenges but I'm in great form.”

Mr Cowen added that his physical recovery has been slower. “The basic paralysis that was caused by the stroke on my right side has not left me and really what you're trying to do is awaken your nervous system again and hopefully your brain," he told Will Faulkner on Midlands 103.

“Even if parts of it don't totally regenerate, other parts of the brain take over those functions or gets to a point where you have functional improvement, at least, if not total rectification of the whole thing.”

“Thankfully with great help from the medics and the hospital staff and the people like speech therapists and physiotherapy both in St Vincent’s and Donnybrook after I overcame a lot of it.”

Despite having left politics in 2011, Mr Cowen is involved with a number of voluntary projects related to issues he feels strongly about with one such being housing. He stated: “Housing is a huge issue. I was asked to go on the board of Simon Community in the Midlands and I’ve done that and it’s doing some excellent work.

“In recent years it has worked with a group called Sophia. It’s an organisation that does work for people seeking housing in Dublin and we’ve been able to work with them and there will be very good developments in that area in the midlands between now and the end of the year and that’s a great thing,” he said, on Midlands 103.

Mr Cowen spoke about the possibility of his brother Barry Cowen being appointed as Minister again after he was removed from office as Minister for Agriculture in 2020 by former Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

“I’m very much on Barry’s side there. If he was qualified to be a minister then, I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t at least be considered in the future.

“I think everyone would know him to be a straight shooter. As long as his name is on the ballot, everyone knows what my work would be, to help him in whatever way I can.”

The former leader of Fianna Fáil also spoke about a potential idea related to rent money being used to secure equity sufficient to enable people to get loans.

Mr Cowen added: “Capacity is a problem at the moment. It’ll still take a number of years before that will resolve itself but again it’s about making a contribution towards solving the problem.”

The Clara native has always been a big supporter of sport and said that he is “glad the younger generation (have) Offaly teams to follow again.” Mr Cowen said there has been great excitement the last couple of years with the minor hurlers, the under 20 hurlers this year and the under 20 footballers in previous years.

“They’ve given great encouragement to that generation to continue with their interests in football and it’s giving a great example to young lads coming up.”

Mr Cowen also referred to the recently opened Tullamore Arts Centre saying that it will allow local talent to grow and prosper.

The former TD spoke about his current interest in politics. “In my life now I would be politically active in whatever capacity whether it be as a participant or an activist or whatever because I’m interested in what goes on in my country, who runs my country.