Category Archives: Disability

Riding on my bike

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‘Hello?’

‘Hello, I was just wondering if…’

‘Sarah, your trike isn’t ready yet. We’re still working on it. We’ll call you, promise.’

I felt unreasonable for ringing for the third time this week about a tricycle that up until a week ago, was slowly rusting in my shed. Alison has started cycling in the evenings, and watching her has stirred a hunger in me. Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit rubbish in myself. and I asked myself what made me feel better when I was younger. And the answer was a good, long cycle. It was a time when I was independent, not reliant on others. Free.

I could be getting my dates wrong, so forgive me, but I think it was Christmas 1992 that Santa got me the two things I’d asked for: Matilda by Roald Dahl and a bike. It was a lovely bike, red and white with black stabilisers and a carrier on the back. I couldn’t wait to try it. After the initial excitement of Christmas was over, we brought it down the conservatory steps and I hopped on. I hadn’t cycled six feet when I fell off. Undeterred, I tried again. And again. And again. It wasn’t working.

‘I don’t understand,’ I moaned. ‘It has stabilisers. Why do I keep falling off?’ Truth be known, I think my parents were disappointed as well. We had overcome so many obstacles and barriers and here was one that seemed insurmountable. Perhaps riding a bike was beyond possible for me.

The following summer I was sent for my annual ‘holiday’ in Clochan House. It was as much a break for my parents as it was for me, and it was a thinly disguised regime of physio, occupational and speech therapy. It was also a chance to make friends and have a bit of a laugh without having to answer ten million awkward questions about my disability. That was the week that Dorothy Oakley, possibly the best physio that ever lived, introduced me to the secret lives of the tricycle users.

‘Want to try one?’ she asked with a twinkle in her eye.  Half an hour later, she was panting trying to keep up with me in the hospital car park, ‘Slow down, I can’t keep up!’ I was in love. I knew that, from that moment on, my life would be very different.

Fast forward six months to Boxing Day. ‘Just got a phone call off Santa,’ my dad announced that morning. ‘There’s been a mix-up with one of your presents. The silly sod left it in Cummins’ shed!’

Bewildered, we wandered across the road where my neighbours opened their shed to reveal a red tricycle! Even then I was smart enough to know this wasn’t the work of Santa but rather of my parents pushing the Health board for months beforehand. Up to that point it was the happiest day of my life. Despite the fact that it was freezing outside, I spent the remainder of the Christmas holidays cycling around our patio, imagining I was in the Tour de France. I used it as a ‘taxi’ for my little sisters, who hopped on the bar above the back wheels and held onto the back of my seat. When I started school in the Sacred Heart, I insisted on cycling to school, hanging the bag on the back. I think my parents drove me to school a total of six times in as many years; I even cycled in snow, such was how precious the independence was to me.

By the time I’d finished second year in 1999, my knees were jutting out over the handlebars, but there was no way I was surrendering my independence. I became wary when my dad started to refer to it as a ‘skittery aul’ bike’ but what was the alternative? There was no way I was going to allow Mum and Dad to drop me to school. One July evening, my dad and Uncle Charlie arrived home in a van. It was 10.30 and the sun was rapidly melting in the sky.

Dad called me. ‘Come out here please.’

I was trying to think of what I’d done wrong when the sight of the most beautiful contraption knocked the breath out of me. It was a majestic navy tricycle, with gears and a basket twice the size of the wire ones in supermarkets. I was in love, however, when I cycled it down the road, I was petrified. It was too big, too fast, and I was sure it would be the cause of my untimely demise.

‘I’ll stick with the red one’ I said, nursing the poppy bruise on my shin.

Needless to say, I did not stick with the red one, and why would I? I could carry my sisters in the basket (Or I did until one of the neighbourhood lads asked to be carried in the basket  and buckled the wheel). It took me exactly four minutes to get from our house in Whitehall to the Sacred Heart, which meant that I was often still eating at half eight. I did my Christmas shopping every year on my trike. I hung around Whitehall for hours talking, delighted to have the energy to do so. It soon became my trademark, which beats being a poor, defenceless little cripple.

Unfortunately, when I was in second year in college the tricycle got stolen from our house in Tullamore, and despite gardai reports and appeals on the radio, it was never recovered. I still mourn its loss, but it wasn’t suitable to bring to Dublin. Once I moved back to the Midlands, however, I began to miss it. I moved to Portlaoise in 2007, and ended up staying at home most of the time. I had an old wheelchair but I still missed the trike.

Then a miracle happened, at just the right time: in 2009, a month after mum passed away, I was granted funding for a new trike. This couldn’t have happened at a better time; I had started moping around and hiding away. I started cycling to do our shopping, started spending afternoons in the library, cycling around the park. Our tenure in Portlaoise came to an abrupt end after I was followed home from Caffe Latte in Lyster Square to our house on Harpurs’ Lane in March 2010. This guy, I later found out, was highly dangerous. As I fled from him that day, I glanced at my speedometer – I was cycling at 16mph, and he still caught me. I would’ve had no chance in a wheelchair, I don’t  think.

My trike was instrumental in organising our wedding, collecting bits and bobs – I even brought my wedding dress to be dry-cleaned afterwards on it. It kept me fit until I got pregnant, and sadly after that I struggled to find the energy to get back cycling, until now.

I’m hoping that cycling will improve my physical and mental health, but I’m also looking forward to reclaiming something that makes me ‘me’. I’m looking forward to cycling with Ali and showing her that there’s always more than one way of doing things, if you’re willing to think outside the box.

Be Quiet

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Hi all, this is a poem I wrote inspired by the day I’ve had. I woke up this morning and spontaneously decided to go up to Dublin for a few hours (I know, I’m a bad cripple not giving notice). So I rang the train station – no answer. Rang Athlone, Portarlington, Dublin – no answer. Frustrated, I did what any rational being would do and took to Twitter, making a complaint to the @IrishRail page. They never answered, but it was retweeted about ten times, with many in disbelief that because I didn’t give notice that there was a real chance I wouldn’t be on the train.

As I watched the responses coming in on Twitter, I started to feel ashamed. Maybe I’d taken it too far this time. Maybe I was starting to cross the  line from well-meaning activist to downright troublemaker. But then it occurred to me that if it was someone else, a fellow wheelchair user, I’d be the first to cause a stink. And that if we don’t cause a fuss, we will continue to be overlooked.

Anyway, Tullamore train station must’ve been notified because, half an hour after my tweet, the kind man there answered and promised me the assistance I needed. I felt simultaneously smug and stupid, and embarrassed to have caused such hassle.

But I am not hassle. I am equal. And I deserve to be treated as such.

Keep Quiet

Sssh
Keep quiet
Don’t make a fuss
All you ever do is complain
Things really aren’t that bad for you people.
Imagine if you had been born
Sixty years ago
You may never have known the outside
Of the four walls of your bedroom.
You don’t realise how lucky you are –
A home, a job, a family –
We don’t need to hear about
How you fought for every little thing.
Contrary to what you read in fairy tales
At night, when you were younger,
One person cannot change the world.
All your anger does
Is make us all uncomfortable

(I cannot stay quiet.
The silence echoes through our small island.
Rights on paper but not in practice,
Lone wolves howling in the darkness.

I dare not stay quiet
When now there is a generation behind me
Who need to know that it’s okay
To point out things are not okay.
I shall never shrug my shoulders
And pretend to be happy with anything less
Than anything less than true equality).

What would be worse than anger is complacency
And silence, shame of causing a fuss.
Going against what we’ve been taught,
That we must be grateful.

Well, I promise to be grateful
When the simplest things are not made complicated,
When I can come and go as I please,
When the words ‘funding cuts’ don’t make me heave,
When I am equal,
And the lion roaring in my soul is quiet.

Film Review: Sanctuary

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It’s been over four years since the RTE documentary that I partook in, Somebody to Love, was aired for the first time. At the time the documentary was recorded, I was going through quite a rough patch emotionally, the mental wounds of having been so heavily scrutinised as a disabled mother had not yet healed. Frankly, I had felt hard done by, the victim of discrimination as a result of my physical impairment. But I was soon reminded, when I watched the documentary that however bad things had been for me, they were much worse for other people.

Living in Ireland all my life, I know that the subject of sexual intercourse has traditionally been taboo, especially sex outside marriage and the notion of freedom of sexual expression. But what if you were living in a country where, for you at least, having sex was illegal? What if you were excluded from exploring your sexual identity because of an outdated law that dictated that sexual intercourse before marriage is essentially rape?

Ireland has a tradition of mollycoddling disabled people, and this culture is slow to change. You may not be aware (as I wasn’t prior to taking part in the documentary) that until recently there was an archaic law called the Lunacy Act 1891 (replaced in 2015 by the Assisted Decision Making Capacity Act) that deemed it illegal for people with intellectual disabilities to have sex outside marriage. This meant that it was assumed that people with intellectual disabilities could not understand or give consent to sexual intercourse.

This is the undercurrent of the film Sanctuary. Sanctuary was originally a play commissioned by the Blue Teapot Theatre Company and written by Christian O’Reilly, who also wrote the film Inside I’m Dancing. Sanctuary is different to any other film I’ve seen depicting the lives of people with disabilities because the cast is largely comprised of people with intellectual disabilities. It’s a refreshing break from the norm of non-disabled actors assuming the roles of people with disabilities; Daniel Day Lewis played Christy in My Left Foot; in Inside I’m Dancing, the two main characters Rory and Michael were played by James McAvoy and Steven Robertson, neither of whom have disabilities in real life. So it was almost a surreal experience to be watching authentic disabled actors on screen.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that the actors were merely given these roles as some kind of tokenistic gesture – these actors are talented and each one inhabited their character with the same dedication as you’d see on any Hollywood screen. The film is set in Galway, with beautiful shots of Galway scenery showcased throughout.  Kieran Coppinger plays Larry, a quirky guy with Down Syndrome and Charlene Kelly plays Sophie, who has an intellectual disability and epilepsy. Both of the actors face the same reality as the characters they play – for them, sex before marriage is illegal. But that’s not going to stop Larry in his quest to have some ‘alone time’ with Sophie!

Tom, the care worker, brings a group of people with intellectual disabilities to the cinema, then leaves them unsupervised to arrange a hotel room for Larry and Sophie with the contents of Larry’s piggy bank. The existence of the piggy bank reminds us how childlike Larry is – or is it simply because he’s treated like a child? As the story progresses, it becomes clear how sheltered Larry has been. Although he’s in his twenties, his mother is disgusted at him for looking at a woman posing in her underwear in a magazine, and she chides him as he leaves the house for bringing too many sweets in his rucksack (she doesn’t know he’s bringing his piggy bank).

Shielding people with intellectual disabilities from the reality of sexual intercourse is bound to have repercussions. Firstly, it doesn’t make people less vulnerable to abuse, something that Sophie can attest to, having been sexually abused in her care home. Secondly, Larry knows that he needs to use a condom ‘to stop Sophie getting pregnant,’ but doesn’t know how to use one, and giving Larry a demonstration is beyond Tom’s comfort zone.  This results in Larry and Sophie having unprotected sex because, as Sophie says, ‘ah sure we couldn’t work it out.’ She smiles at the thought of having a baby with Larry, oblivious to the fact that it is highly unlikely that the State would allow two parents with intellectual disabilities raise a child.

Even though the main story is dark, some parts of the film are hilarious. While Larry and Sophie contemplate breaking the law, their unsupervised companions wander the streets of Galway and end up in comical situations, robbing shops, getting drunk and even getting high! There are some brilliant one-liners too that will put a smile on your face.

Does the film have a happy ending? That’d be telling! All I’ll say is this is a story that you won’t forget, and one that should be talked about long after the closing credits. And that the authenticity of the film – a combination of the plot, the characters and the setting -will change the way you perceive people with intellectual disabilities in a way no other film has thus far.

Sanctuary is available on Amazon. Go buy it – you won’t be disappointed!

 

 

True to Me

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I’m sure each and every one of you have been wondering where I’ve been, and have been spending your waking hours pining for another thrilling instalment of this blog. My apologies for my absence, but believe it or not, I’ve been quite busy writing! I completed a ‘Begin Your Novel’ course during the first week of March and realised, to my great disappointment, that what I’d written so far is an unsalvageable mess. So, I did what any self-respecting writer would do and I started again, which has taken up a great deal of my headspace and time. Second time lucky, right…?

I also realised that I’m a cranky old bitch who, while I don’t mind blogging about disability issues, I hate talking about the day-to-day realities of having CP. To be honest, I bore myself so I wouldn’t inflict that on other people. I live as average a life as I can, juggling writing with raising my daughter, and I am lucky insofar as if I can keep some sort of realistic balance and not push myself past the point of redemption, I can get away with keeping a number of balls in the air. I’ve been conditioned to believe, through interaction with other die-hard activists, that it’s society that truly impairs us and that we need to keep challenging these barriers; they, and not our impairments, are the real source of inequality facing disabled people in Ireland.

Lately, however, I’ve been having doubts about my own beliefs, and these doubts have stopped me from blogging as I normally do. Who am I to question the system? Who am I to maintain that it’s society that disables us? Am I too angry? Have I become the proverbial ‘crip with a chip’ that everyone hates? And am I willing to quieten things down a little, stop being so extreme in my loyalty to the pursuit of pure equality and the philosophy of Independent Living (if there even is one any more)?

The answer to the last question is no. And I hate myself for it, I really do.

On Monday night, Tom Milne, Catherine Molloy and I partook in a radio show called the Open Door hosted by the wonderful Ann Marie Kelly on Midlands 103 where the theme of the show was my poem, ‘Fight, Fight, Fight.’ I have to admit that I acted like a pig-headed jackass towards Ann-Marie, which she didn’t deserve because she was very welcoming to me. But I wanted to highlight so many issues facing people with disabilities when she wanted to talk about my impairment and my day-to-day life. I felt frustrated. I didn’t want to be seen as inspirational (lads, I haven’t had a job with a steady wage for three years). I felt ashamed of myself. I mentioned my novel and what I want to achieve writing it but I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it. (It is the main item on my wish-list this year).

And up until an hour ago, I was struggling to find words to explain why I felt so frustrated in myself. Having stared at a blank screen for a whole half hour, I eventually said ‘sod this’ and decided to whittle away the evening hours watching TED talks on YouTube. To make myself feel better, I decided to watch Francesca Martinez’s TED talk in the name of ‘disability research’. Francesca Martinez is a writer, activist and comedienne with Cerebral Palsy who wrote a fantastic autobiography What the **** is Normal? In her talk, Francesca talks about how she spent her teenage years trying to fit in (just like I did) and how her life changed at nineteen when her friend Dylan gave her life changing information: ‘You are you. Yes, you walk differently but no two people walk the same way. You are Francesca, and you can define yourself any way you want.’

Francesca had a light-bulb moment, just as I did watching the TED talk. We spend so much time, she says, trying to conform in a world obsessed with consumerism, being told that if we buy lots of stuff, wear certain things and look and act a certain way, then we will be accepted by our peers. But, as she points out, the illusion this creates isn’t real. And that’s when I realised exactly why I felt torn apart inside.

I want to be real. I want to be seen as a real person. Yes, I am capable of doing some great things but I also reserve the right to be seen as a cantankerous git, someone who doesn’t always get it right. I want to be seen as someone who challenges the status quo, who is willing to take risks. I can’t change the fact that I  have Cerebral Palsy, but if I persevere, I might be able to change people’s misconceptions and eliminate barriers to full inclusion to society.

And I know that those who really matter will completely understand where I’m coming from. In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, ‘I never apologise. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way I am.’

 

Rebel Girls

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My six year old daughter, like most children, likes a bedtime story before she goes to sleep. Her latest favourite book is Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls, a collection of stories about famous women who broke the mould in some way. There’s over a hundred of them: Coco Chanel, Jane Austen, Amelia Earhart to name a few. However, no matter what ones we read, she always insists on reading the story about Rosa Parks. It’s the story of a woman of colour who refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white person. Eventually, thanks to Rosa Parks, apartheid soon became illegal.

‘Why did black people and white people not sit together?’ my daughter asked, confused. There’s a healthy mixture of nationalities in her class, and my heart sunk at the idea that she would, unintentionally, start to label them as different.

‘Because people are mean,’ I replied. ‘Sometimes people make up stupid rules to suit themselves and hurt others, for no reason. It’s a bit like bullying.’

‘People are mean to you too, sometimes,’ she observed. ‘They laugh at you, call you names. But you never get hurt, and you never give out to them or get angry about it. If I were you, I would.’

I looked into her round blue eyes and smiled by way of reply. Plenty of time when she’s older, I thought, to sit her down and explain everything. How I grew up in a mainstream environment where I spent too much time trying to fit in. How I fought to prove myself as a person of worth, in school, in college and at work. How hard I’d fought to prove myself as a worthy mother, not only to professionals, but to Ali and even to myself.

Tomorrow, the 8th March marks International Women’s Day, a day to acknowledge and address both the real challenges facing modern women and the fantastic achievements that women have made throughout history.

But today, 7th March 2018, marks an equally significant milestone: a solid commitment from our government to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (aka the UNCRPD). The disabled population of Ireland has been waiting for this for nearly twelve years. And it seems inappropriate of me to admit that after all this time, after blogging about it so much, I don’t feel that lightness, that relief that I thought I would.

Oh, it’s a victory for sure – we have won a battle, all right – a battle we should never had to fight in the first place. The onset of the recession brought waves of devastation to the disability sector, and the aftershocks are still in evidence today. The disability budget was stripped down to the minimum, and many disabled people lived basic lives. Unable to afford their own accommodation or to get a job, many were forced to live with their families or in segregated/institutionalised settings. Fear soon consumed us, and many of us were left afraid to complain lest whatever we had left was taken away from us too.

I have spent my adult life hearing stories about wheelchair users being trapped on trains, about disabled parents living in fear of their kids being taken (and sadly I’ve also heard stories of people who’d love to become parents but don’t have the energy to fight the system/jump through hoops as we did), about people going for countless job interviews and never getting a job.  And as much as I’d love to think it would, ratifying the UNCRPD isn’t going to mean anything unless we truly believe  that we are equal and that we are willing to start a new narrative.

Tomorrow, on the 8th March, International Women’s Day, I will be thinking of all the wonderful rebel women I know, especially those with disabilities. The ones who fought to be educated. The ones who decided that they didn’t want to spend the rest of their lives in the back room of their parents’ houses. The ones who had lots of sex and had babies. The ones who continue chipping away at the inequality they face, both as women and disabled people. I’ll be thinking of my mother, who didn’t believe in mollycoddling me, who taught me how to be self-sufficient. I’ll be thinking of my daughter, the future generation, who I know will take it upon herself to make the world a better place for the rebel girls of the future.

And tomorrow, I’ll continue to lead by example, as best I can.

 

Cripple for sale (Dramatic Monologue)

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Hi folks/legions of loyal followers/Dad(!)

I wrote this monologue just before Christmas. It’s called ‘Cripple for Sale’. The rationale behind this monologue is that in Ireland, disabled people are afforded neither rights nor dignity owing to our government’s failure to make significant investment into Personal Assistant Services. The HSE has pledged money for home help and home care services in 2018, but it’s unclear whether there’s been any extra investment into Personal Assistant Services.

Many of us, including myself, want to be seen as equal in Irish society. Paradoxically, however, we need certain supports – human, technological, accessibility and financial (to name a few) in order for this to happen. Sometimes I find, as a person with a disability, that it works against you if you portray  yourself to be too ‘capable’ or ‘able’ as the powers that be don’t take a holistic approach to service provision and instead provide services based on absolute ‘need’. Consequently, people with disabilities are becoming institutionalised in their own homes and failing to reach their true potentials.

Every October, come budget day, the Center for Independent Living and the Irish Wheelchair Association make ‘Pre-Budget Submissions’ outlining why substantial investment is needed in the disability sector. We are at higher risk of poverty owing to being stuck in a benefit trap. The Disability Allowance is means tested and doesn’t take into account the extra costs of having a disability – the cost of equipment, extra heating, durable shoes, pre-prepared veg – little things that make a huge difference in the lives of many.

We don’t want to be charity cases. As I said before, charity is too unreliable. We need our human rights to be protected. And with rumours that the ratification of the UN Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities has been postponed until 2019, disabled people remain dependent on the goodwill of the State.

Anyway, here’s my monologue ‘Cripple for Sale’. Enjoy!

 

A young woman sits in a wheelchair with a tartan blanket on her lap, shaking a bucket.

Cripple for sale! Cripple for sale!

A cripple’s soul is for sale!

I ain’t too fussy about the price; any old coppers will do!

Come on now, dig deep, it’s for a good cause!

Hey you – yes, you- oi – ! walking with your head down

Avoiding eye contact with me –

What do you think will happen if you look at me?

Do you think I will try and manipulate you with my sad eyes,

Remind you that it could be you sitting here

Catching trails of your own saliva on the back of your hand

Hands and legs jerking like a woman – possessed!

What’s that you say…? … you’re frightened? Frightened of me…?

How the hell do you think I feel?

I’m sitting here naked, cut open, on full display

Every spasm, every jerk, every bloomin’ thing I have offered up in some sacrifice…

…oh, I’m sorry, have I made you uncomfortable? Oh dear!

I didn’t mean to… that’s why I thought it best to sit in this wheelchair… even though I can walk…

Well, you may not call it walking… I suppose it’s more… ambling…crawling on foot…stumbling one foot after another…

Something like that ‘freaky’ creature in Lord of the Rings…

A cripple falling over would not be a good look

…but I’m sorry, I haven’t tried hard enough…

Maybe if I had spent more time doing that physio like you said… or if I had gone for that life-changing operation when I was six… Maybe if I had been a good little girl and done what I was told I wouldn’t be sitting here, in the freezing cold…

In a country where the only right I have is the right to be a defensive little cripple… alive only for the mercy of this wonderful, merciful government…

Oh, sorry I’m moaning again! aren’t I so lucky to be so far removed from that barbaric regime that defined Nazi Germany… that story that everyone knows and no-one talks about –

a place where cripples went in to be rehabilitated and came out…

Well…

What am I talking about now?

We don’t want to be upsetting people… after all…

Things are so much different now, aren’t they…?

…aren’t they?

People like me are even allowed out now… well… of course a couple of minor preparations need to be made…

You need to pass that pesky risk assessment, you know, the one that determines whether you’re at risk of falling, or choking, or drawing attention to yourself by being your wobbly self – phew!

…but yes, we are so much more free now, I mean, can you actually imagine how depressing it would be to be holed away in some ancient grey-bricked hospital, living life like a well-programmed robot, so well trained that it never occurred to you to feel unhappy… or to feel anything…

Oh of course I feel, but not what you want me to feel…

I suppose you want me to feel lucky and grateful

That you took the five seconds out of your day to throw the loose change from the bottom of your handbag into my bucket

To help the cripples have a better life

So you can go home to your family and tell them that you’ve made a difference to ‘those people’ –

You’re definite about this – we’re the same really (but not quite)

You want to help me, but you want to keep me at arms’ length – lest I infect you with my imperfections

Don’t think I haven’t noticed that disinfectant gel you keep in your handbag

To protect yourself from those ‘cripple germs’ –

And I suppose me being offended is a complete waste of time –

Just like us both pretending that you’ll ever really see me as your equal…

You haven’t really been listening, have you…?

So I suppose there’s only one thing I can do…

CRIPPLE FOR SALE!

Any old coppers will do.

 

 

What’s the Story?

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My Left Foot was on RTE 2 on Saturday night. I know it well because it was one of the ‘comparative’ texts I studied for my Leaving Cert (the film, not the book). Of course, me being me, I’ve read the book as well and it seems to be the voice of a man who very much came from an era where disability and impairment were problematic (okay, let’s face it, that’s every era – nothing’s changed there). Christy Brown is regarded as one of the most talented Irish writers of the twentieth century, and his name has become synonymous with triumph over adversity, literary genius, truly inspirational. And as a writer with Cerebral Palsy myself, I reflected on what it’s like to live in the shadow of such genius, and such brutal and cold oppression such as that endured by Brown.

If I had been born thirty years before, would I too have been relegated to watching life pass me by from under the stairs?

I’m constantly being told that I should consider  writing an autobiography, as Christy says ‘my own story’, and although I’m sure that every writer toys with the idea at one stage or another, part of me can’t see anything particularly extraordinary about my life. Unlike Christy Brown I was mainstreamed, and was very much a part of ordinary family life. I went to school, where I detested homework, and then to secondary school and college. I was always convinced that this was the status quo for other disabled people too, in spite of the fact that there were only two other students with physical disabilities in my school. (I say physical because there are also hidden disabilities like dyslexia, etc.)

Sixty years on from the publication of My Left Foot, I know that there are hundreds of autobiographies written by people with disabilities. In my home town alone, two men with Cerebral Palsy have published their own stories – Brendan Brophy wrote On Three Wheels and Dealing a Bad Hand and David Boland wrote Life from the Tip of My Tongue. Their style is different from Christy Brown’s, although some experiences are the same such as being in the CRC. My good friend Leigh Gath is currently extending her autobiography Don’t Tell Me I Can’t, the s\tory of her incredible journey as a thalidomide survivor (she has hands and feet, but not arms and legs) growing up in Newry during the Troubles, finding her identity as a sexual being and escaping from her alcoholic husband to finally find true love.

The progression of the perception of disability between My Left Foot and Don’t Tell Me I Can’t is intriguing. In My Left Foot Christy is preoccupied with his physical limitations and the now outdated terms he uses to describe himself, such as ‘cripple’ and ‘handicap’ whereas having been born thirty(?) years later, Leigh has a different perspective. Despite her specialised education at boarding school, she can clearly see from a young age that she is not the ‘problem’ but rather she lives in a society that won’t accommodate her needs. This frustration led her to become involved in disability activism and hard-core protests in trying to secure the rights of people with disabilities. It’s interesting to note that Leigh grew up in Newry, a community divided into Catholic and Protestants, while also inhabiting a world that endeavoured to reinforce the differences between disabled and non-disabled people.

Christy Brown’s perception of disability is now a little outdated. But one thing he must be credited for is that he gave permission to the disability community of Ireland (and the wider world) to tell their stories. Unfortunately at present we live in a world where these stories often exist in isolation. Christy Brown’s book may have garnered him worldwide recognition, but the rest of us face a new challenge. Disability has become so commonplace and integration is supposedly the status quo to the extent where, in the future,  writing your story from the perspective of having a disability won’t be enough to gain you credibility or respect.

Instead, it will be up to us as the future Christy Browns to push the message that disabled people in themselves are not problematic. It is society that disables, society that insists that we are different. A disability or impairment can never be overcome, but obstacles created by our society can be removed, if we put our minds to it.

And though I admit that I also am a sucker for a good old ‘triumph over adversity’ story, wouldn’t it be simultaneously strange and wonderful if we had more stories like: ‘Wobbly Yummy Mummy had no problems accessing mainstream school, or going to college, or accessing transport. She lived an average life with her husband and her kid. She sold a billion copies of her bestselling novel. The End.’

Okay, that’s a little boring. A little ordinary, even. But a good writer will always find the extraordinary in everyday life, if he or she is willing to look hard enough for it. My hope is that in the future, disabled  people will be perceived, and have the courage to portray themselves as the multi-faceted, complicated creatures we are.

And undoubtedly My Left Foot, both the book and the film version will be studied for decades to come, and my hope is that students will exclaim, ‘How could Irish society exclude Christy Brown and other disabled people for so long? Thank God Ireland ratified the UNCRPD!’*

*We haven’t, as of 23rd January 2018. The Minister of State with responsibility for Disability promised it would be ratified by the end of January. Forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.

 

 

Fitting in

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It might surprise those who  know me to learn that despite my passionate way with words, I once was seriously lacking in self-confidence.

I have always been integrated into a mainstream environment. When I started attending primary school in 1989, nearly thirty years ago, integrating students with disabilities into mainstream classes was certainly not the norm. it didn’t take me long to work out that I was the ‘other’, an undesirable, almost an example of what could go horribly wrong in life. By the time I was eight I always felt a hint  of self-loathing in the background, a sense of shame, responsibility. I must have done something pretty abhorrent to deserve such rejection, such isolation by my peers. I couldn’t be trusted to do PE, to play out in the yard. By the time I reached secondary school I was something of a pariah. I cycled to school on a red, then blue, tricycle. I had a laptop. I walked from class to class like I was drunk.

The only time I ever got closed to being kissed (‘shifted’ as we say in the Midlands) was in third year and a young lad asked me, stating that it was part of a dare. I declined as the boys fell about laughing. When I told my friend, she said I should’ve gone for it as I was sixteen and at that stage, had had no encounters, romantic or otherwise. After all, it was the best I could do, the best I could hope for. For a long time I accepted this as the status quo. (My husband was my first and only kiss- isn’t he  lucky?)

I was the geek in school – the brainbox. The world of the average teenager was one I didn’t fit into.

At fourteen, until my early twenties, I instigated a war with my stupid spastic body. While the girls in my class were wearing jeans, tight-fitting tops, hipsters and belly-tops, I was wearing baggy combats and my mum’s old t-shirts. I didn’t own a single dress or a skirt because I didn’t see the point. The girls in my class were ‘sexy’ whereas I had nobblity knees, ever-jumping arms and a screwed-up mouth. Ironically, the only thing that I liked about myself was my brain (which is ironically damaged!), my mental ability.

In fifth year, I decided that I needed to define myself as someone other than the class cripple, the tokenistic inspirational figure. In a world where I would never fit in, I  had to be good at something. Around the same time, I started exercising more and I lost weight. I was delighted with myself. I started eating less. I was finally the clever, skinny girl in class. I had a small group of friends. I almost felt beautiful, normal.

It didn’t matter that my own ribs ripped into my skin when I lay down at night.

It didn’t matter that I stayed up till twelve at night learning Irish poems while my parents pleaded with me to stop. ‘This shit is not the end of the world,’ my father would say as I looked at him from my books, panda-eyed, my brain melted. And I could never find the words to explain to him how much I needed to do this, that unless I conformed that I wouldn’t be worth anything, not only in the eyes of others, but in my own eyes.

In 1999, I went on a pilgrimage to Lourdes with the Irish Handicapped Children’s Pilgrimage Trust, and I remember vividly seeing the seven abandoned crutches hanging by the grotto, left by those who had apparently been cured. Did I want to be cured? I was asked before I flew out, by various people. Cured of what? My mum retorted when I told her. She’d always been adamant  that I was fine the way I was. Okay, I lie: she wished that I wasn’t such a huffy teenager and that I took the initiative to clean up  now and then, but in terms of my disability, she was pretty accepting. And it was only after I’d been to Lourdes (and came back my same old spastic self) that I started to question not only how I was perceived but how disability in general was perceived.

After all, didn’t Jesus cure the cripples and the lepers? When I was say, communion age, I don’t remember cripples being mentioned in religion class and I wonder now whether that was a deliberate action taken by the teachers, to avoid awkward questions. But I knew from going to Mass that Jesus cured cripples – the blind, the lame. In my teens I had many an elderly lady come up to me, unapologetically invade my personal space and say, ‘I’ll keep praying for you,’ when ironically their lives were probably much crappier than  mine. Hell, in my twenties I went to Mass in Emo one evening and the priest actually apologised to me afterwards for reading a gospel about curing the cripples!

Disability is unsexy, disability is undesirable. This is the mantra we crips are taught, from cradle to grave. We exist only to remind others that they are lucky, that they somehow dodged a bullet in being ‘normal’. I’ve actually heard people I know and love saying ‘God, if I were to be diagnosed with xyz disability, I think I’d kill myself.’ We are amazing simply in being. But of course the majority of us crips hate this patronising bulls**t. Unfortunately we live in a world where we are expected to conform, to fit in. Look at all the women’s fashion magazines. You’ll never see a size fourteen in any of them (is it true that fourteen is considered a ‘plus’ size?) and rarely will you find a disabled model.

With no strong disabled role models until my mid-twenties, I spent the majority of my life second-guessing myself. I went to a secondary school that had an upstairs and never questioned why it had no lift. I wore high heels to my grad and didn’t understand why I couldn’t walk in them! I chided myself for getting tired even though I know I use more energy than others doing menial shite. To slow down, take it easy, makes you weak, not quite as capable. Even now I cannot shake that mantra completely.

Despite the fact that disabled people are shouting loud, demanding their rights (your end of January deadline for having the UNCRPD ratified quickly looms, Mr Finian McGrath), there’s still an uncomfortable undercurrent, an unspoken consensus that we  should strive to eradicate impairment in all its forms. Hitler had ideas on how to achieve this (gas chambers) which is a shameful part of our history. But his ideals are far from relegated to the past. I read an article published just last week about how Pakistan is promoting the use of drugs and technology with the aim of ‘eradicating disability by 2025’. (Why such a specific timeline?) In the same article it’s reported that Pakistan has done little to further human rights of people with disabilities in the country. I can’t be the only one who is frightened by this.

One such piece of technology which is increasing in popularity is the eksoskeleton, more commonly known as robotic legs. I read in the local rag the other day that a local man has recently acquired one and highly recommends it. And I am trying to see the positives too. There’s great benefit in exercise with the aid of an ekoskeleton, particularly for those paralysed from the waist down. What makes me uncomfortable is  that it pushes wheelchair users further down a hierarchy, reinforcing the idea that to be physically disabled is far from desirable. For those of us who have struggled on our road to self-acceptance, it reminds us that we are ‘Other’ and that we live in a society more preoccupied with making sure people fit in rather than committing to constantly strive to make our world more accessible. Not forgetting, of course, that we need to be inclusive of people with visual, hearing, intellectual and emotional impairments as well.

I only hope that in ten years’ time, when my own daughter is in her mid-teens, that there aren’t hordes of insecure disabled teens across the country, doubting their proper place  in the world as I once did.

And if I could give them one piece of advice, it would be this:

Stop trying to conform for the wrong reasons, and make sure you stand out for the right ones.

Cripples In Crisis

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Thinking that today was going to be a relatively quiet day, writing-wise, I decided to settle down and watch the documentary ‘Carers in Crisis’ (aired Tuesday 5 December) and mentally pass it off as work. I had previously decided to boycott it because I feel that over the last twelve months, there has been an overemphasis on the heroism of unpaid carers, a narrative that traditionally frames people with disabilities as ‘burdens’.

Words cannot describe how grateful I am that RTE actually approached the documentary in such a sensitive way, in a manner that not only highlights the sheer exhaustion which family carers are currently experiencing, but also emphasises  that Ireland’s charitable approach to the provision of disability services isn’t working, and is not going to work going forward either.

Let’s look at this logically. It’s estimated that there are 200,000 carers in Ireland right now. Two hundred thousand people who, whether willingly or begrudgingly, are caring for a family member who has a disability or is entering old age. Two hundred thousand people who get little recognition from the State for the fact that they have put their lives on hold in order to care for their loved ones. Often, family members, as was portrayed in the documentary, have to carry out tasks such as personal care (toileting, showering), tasks that Carers and Personal Assistants now need a QQI Level 5 qualification in Healthcare Support to perform. I’d wager that many family members have never even heard of this.

There’s no doubt that many carers are drained and, as in the case of Johanne Powell who cares for her severely disabled daughter Siobhan, at the end of their tethers. All of the parents in the documentary were hoping that their dependent children died before them because they don’t trust that the State will provide the care their loved ones need. After all, HIQA has highlighted some inhumane conditions in residential centres across the country.

But one message was particularly clear: the only way the immense and arguably unnecessary burden to family carers is going to be lifted is if we start putting the person with the disability first, something which the Junior Minister with Responsibility for Disability Finian McGrath agrees is vital. However, after meeting him in person I instantly recognised his evasiveness tactic; he continually interrupted Claire Byrne with what seemed to be pre-rehearsed speeches. With respect, after watching him and meeting him last month, I feel that he takes criticism about the status quo for people with disabilities too personally. For example, he pointed out that the respite grant has been restored. He also mentioned that there is now a taskforce working on personalised budgets for people with disabilities.

What concerns me is that his experience of disability comes from being a parent of a child with a disability and while he seems to be a fierce advocate for parents and carers, we need a Minister for Disability who will speak on our behalf. We need someone who genuinely recognises that people with disabilities are tired of constantly having to fight for our rights. We live in a country where the right to residential care was signed into our constitution in 1990, but where people with disabilities have no legal entitlement to a Personal Assistant Service. Having worked in the area of Independent Living for seven years, I am now passionate about spreading the philosophy of Independent Living, not least because having a Personal Assistant is often economically wiser than living in a residential institution. The latter can cost up to €800 per week, according to last night’s show, where having a Personal Assistant coming into a person’s own home might only cost half that.

It is only through striving to protect the rights and dignity of people with disabilities in this country that we will create a better Ireland for everyone, disabled person and carer alike. It’s time to stop pitting disabled people and carers against each other, because unless our country starts providing adequate, person-centred services, there will be no winners in the end.

The Disability Movement is in crisis. We must assert our rights at every given opportunity.

Only we can stop the Movement from moving backwards any further.

 

 

The Repression of Rachel

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It was a miserable September afternoon, the 19th if I’m not mistaken, and I was sitting in the Hilton Hotel in Kilmainham with a man I’d only met once before, having coffee in the middle of the day. Sounds sordid, but I assure you it wasn’t. It was purely business. You see, I’d written a monologue and I was due to perform it in the Mansion House at a massive disability event on 23rd September, but something about the piece felt hollow, and so Peter was trying to encourage me to inject a bit of personality into it.

‘Who is this character?’ he demanded as we reread the script, me eyeing him warily. Surely he wasn’t suggesting that my perfectly written script required an overhaul, four days before the bloody event?

‘What do you mean? It’s an everyman-type character.’

‘Well, where’s she from at least?’

I knew the answer to this. ‘She’s from Kinvara. My aunt lives just outside it, in the Burren. What I’ve always found interesting about Kinvara is that it’s in County Galway, kind of on the Clare border. I thought that it’d be a good metaphor for this character, who’s stuck between having a disability and needing services to live independently, and being capable in so many ways too. She’s confused and angry about how society defines her.’

‘And if she were an animal, what would she be?’ he asked. He’s lost it, I thought. Finally I answered:

‘A caged tiger.’

‘And what is it that fuels her anger?’

I composed a perfectly generic answer: ‘The way in with society treats her like an ‘other’ and as I said before, confusion about her place in society.’

Peter wasn’t happy with my answer. ‘Be more specific. What fuels your anger?’ A lump formed in my throat.

‘The way I was treated after my daughter was born.’ As I told Peter the story, my heart broke in the same places it did nearly six years ago when I found myself trying to convince medical ‘experts’ – as well as myself – that I was a capable mother. After I finished, Peter grinned.

‘Now that’s a story worthy of drama.’ I went cold. Was he seriously suggesting I get emotionally naked in front of two hundred people?

He certainly was.

And so, on the 23rd September, I performed a monologue that I had co-written (I don’t normally write in collaboration, but it’s time to open up my mind to new experiences) in front of two hundred people.  And since 3 December marks International Day of People with Disabilities, I thought it would be appropriate to share it with you today.

 

Rachel from Kinvara, by Peter Kearns and Sarah Fitzgerald

(Rachel is sitting in a chair and a woman dressed in a white coat is sticking labels on her – scrounger, handicap, vulnerable, waste-of-space etc)

Go away. I said – go away.

Just five minutes. five minutes – that’s all I ask.

And don’t worry, I won’t forget I’m not ‘normal’

I can’t forget – I’m not allowed to forget – we are never allowed to forget!

Well I wish I could forget you… this horrible pain you’ve inflicted upon me…

But you don’t understand. I tried – I did my best…

Yes – yes I did…

people never get to hear my voice…

You say it’s because ‘they’ – those ‘mainstreamers’ – won’t understand me.

Instead you encourage them to pity me, to try and ‘cure’ me….

I am broken because you have broken me.

You told me that the only way that my life could be better

was if I improved, if I made the effort…

You promised me if my impairment were cured, that I could have everything…

I did the exercises  – stretched on the hard, sticky medicine ball and I endured your prodding and poking, cutting me open  and sewing me back together and – Look at me!

What do you see when you look at me?!

I don’t know how you look people in the eye…

Convince them that you know what’s best for me…

Convince me -and them – I know nothing about running my own life…

Will you be the one to bend down and kiss me on the cheek

And stick me into a Galway or Clare nursing home

Take me out to your AGM – that once a year ‘thing’ that makes you feel good

And then store me away like normies store their Christmas decorations in the attic –

Never to be seen from one end of the year to the next?

Am I starting to sound like a broken record?

Normies think that it’s okay that I have to give twenty four hours’ notice before using public transport?

That I would rather laze around on benefits than contribute to society?

Loads – I’ve shitloads – Loads to say… but hey…

It’s easier to believe I’m a freeloading scrounger rather than someone, who could be… someone….

Actually I am someone. Seven years ago I became a wife and two years later I became a mother. But you couldn’t let me have that, could you?

Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about.

You told me that I would be a danger to my own baby.

And… even after doing all the ‘normal’ things – the Leaving Cert – battling access in an inaccessible college – being a wobbly yummy mummy was taking that mainstreaming that little bit too far.

I caught you spying on me while I struggled in the playground with those shitty nappies, staring while I tried to breastfeed – your stares dried up my milk, your judgement lessened my embraces.

I felt worthless, damaged. For a long time you led me to  believe I was not a proper  mother.

Do you know how good it feels to have proven you wrong?

And how degrading it was to have to do it in the first place?

I have a daughter, she calls me mummy

I care for her, not the other way round. Of all the labels you’ve placed on me, it’s my label – my favourite.

She is my proudest achievement – my legacy.

And you won’t ever be able to take that from me – would you – could you?

So here I am… in Kinvara… neither Galway nor Clare… neither specialised nor mainstreamed – literally ‘idir eatha’ as the mystics would say, ‘between worlds’ – the hard world of your anxious clinical society and a place I know in myself, in the unfolding mystery of my daughter…

… and her name is… (lights down)