All Mark Pollock Blogs
My Beating Heart
I spend almost every day in the gym. I wear sports kit almost all of the time and I’m forever banging on about my diet and training. But I never have to change my kit after training because I never really sweat. The reason that I never really sweat is that my...
Inspired To Eat Like Natural Born Heroes
My friend Johnny Johnston recently recommended a book by Christopher McDougall called "Natural Born Heroes - How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance". 20 years ago Johnny and I used to row together at university and since then...
Stimulating spinal cord injury research in Dublin
I floated out of my mind for a flurry of seconds and then I was back in the lab, on a bench. Like so many of the new feelings I’ve felt this past year it is hard to describe. It was a bit like the floating I felt on morphine in intensive care. But that didn’t matter....
My Insurance Claim after Paralysis
Last week I was in court in the UK about the fall that left me paralysed in 2010. For legal reasons I could not talk about the case and in that vacuum there have been unbalanced accounts of the court proceedings in the media. Whatever the court’s judgment I wanted to...
Polar Titans & Our Own Intrinsic Motivation
Last Sunday I dropped into The South Pole Inn in Annascaul, Co. Kerry to honour Tom Crean. He was a titan of the heroic age of polar exploration. He was born in Annascaul and the pub he ran after his polar exploration ended in 1916 still serves beer and is a memorial...
On Being a Realist
On the 18th July 2010 I was lying in the acute ward of The National Spinal Injuries Centre in the UK. It was two weeks after my fall, I couldn’t feel or move my legs, I was pumped full of morphine and despite all of this I was feeling lucky to be alive. As I lay there...
I’ve Gone Part-Time Paleo!
There have been phases in my adult life when people squeeze my shoulder and say, "you must be training hard". The problem is that it usually coincides with times when I have been doing little more than training myself to eat a mix of cheese and ham served up on...
I’ve Gone Part-Time Paleo!
There have been phases in my adult life when people squeeze my shoulder and say, "you must be training hard". The problem is that it usually coincides with times when I have been doing little more than training myself to eat a mix of cheese and ham served up on...
Something Comes From Something
MY FRIEND BARRY CORSCADEN is an enigma; relentlessly funny and deeply insightful. He says he’s going to write a book called "Something Comes from Something". After some years, though, he has found that all he needs is the title. It says all he needs to say. Last year...
“Unbreakable” documentary film Irish tour coming to an end
The Unbreakable film Irish tour is coming to an end and it has been incredible to get the chance to discuss our story at the post-screening Q&A’s with so many people around the country. We have learnt a lot and it means a great deal to Simone and I to know that we...
