‘Oh, you little minx, Charlotte Taylor,’ said Martin as he sipped his glass of Malbec. ‘And I thought that butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth.’

I sighed in a bid to defend myself.

‘It was actually an after-school detention for my Sister Act clapping in the choir, not a suspension if you must know, Matthew, so don’t exaggerate,’ I corrected my brother. ‘And by the way, I’m so glad I’m not depending on you for a job reference now that I’m an out-of-work teacher!’

Martin agreed with me. He shuffled up in his seat.

‘He’d sink you, Charlotte! He does the same to me all the time!’

Matthew was enjoying the attention and stirring the pot.

‘I can assure you that any of my blips in school were minor, Martin,’ I said, keeping it going. ‘So don’t listen to him. He always did love to spin a yarn when he’d an audience, didn’t you Matthew? All I can say is, once a showman, always a showman.’

And speaking of audiences and being a showman, they went on to tell me with great enthusiasm how they’d now secured two gigs a week in the city as a two-piece act under the tongue-in-cheek name of ‘Wonder Wheels’, playing cover versions of popular songs to tourists, students and whoever passed through some of Galway city’s finest bars, pubs and nightclubs.

‘It’s a full-time job keeping up with artists like Ed Sheeran,’ said Matthew, unable to hide his elation as he told me all about his latest repertoire. ‘And to be honest I was very out of touch with the music of today, but I’ve quickly learned how to please the variety of people who turn up in the melting pot that is Galway.’

‘It’s a hive of music,’ Martin told me, his eyes joyous too at his own recollection of how immersed in the local scene they’d already become. ‘We’re just starting out but I’ve no doubt we’ll get even busier soon.’

My heart soared when they then brought me up to speed with Matthew’s new rehabilitation programme and how his medical team were constantly setting targets to build muscle and were encouraging him to work on various equipment and exercises to try and reconnect his brain to his limbs. Matthew was full of vigour when he talked about walking again, which lit a fire inside me too as I fed off his enthusiasm.

‘It’s a guessing game,’ Martin explained, equally as dedicated to my brother’s rehabilitation as Matthew was himself. ‘It could be months, it could be years, but a lot of it is down to a positive mental attitude and that’s what we’re working on every day, isn’t it, Matt?’