Paddy O'Connell gives lecture at his old school, Gresham's

Published on isbi School News dated Wednesday 6th of March 2013

Staff and students were delighted to welcome Old Greshamian Paddy O'Connell (1979-1984) back to Gresham's recently, talking to the Sixth Form on the theme of Emotional Intelligence.

Paddy is a very well-known name in the world of Radio, TV and journalism. His interests and experience are wide and varied, including being a Stonewall Ambassador, campaigning to stop homophobic bullying in schools. Paddy was meant to be attending a meeting in one of the towers in New York on 9/11, but had overslept and was therefore not in the building at the time they fell. He was, however, interviewing people as a BBC correspondent immediately after. He spoke movingly about this, answering questions about how he felt, and how this had impacted on him emotionally.

In his experience of meeting celebrities and politicians, interviewing for his radio show and for articles, Paddy has engaged with a wide range of personalities. He gave extremely generously of his time to talk to our Sixth Form about how we can benefit from learning about and developing our Emotional Intelligence. Paddy's presentation was moving, thought provoking and typically entertaining. The students asked him questions for over half an hour about his experiences. Amongst the excellent speakers we have had for the Well-Being Programme, Paddy will be remembered as a powerful, authoritative and extremely dynamic presenter. We cannot thank him enough for giving up some of his precious time in order to communicate his message to our students.