Craic heads in Cavan
On Wednesday, 23rd of May, the launch took place in Cavan’s Central Library of a report on the “Dara has the Craic” project. This is a joint initiative between Cavan and Kildare County Councils which aims to improve accessibility to council services by people with various forms of disability.
The event was marked with the usual banal panoply of publicity. A photographer for the local rag was in attendance to capture some of the main actors in the proceedings in the usual toy-soldier poses. I’d die were my face to be included in that “hue & cry” which has carried the craven images of so many scoundrels in its time.
The launch was taken up by speeches, though I must say that the standard of eloquence and delivery of most of the speakers was excellent.
The “Dara has the Craic” project is a worthy endeavour, combining serious thinking with an essential element of fun, which obviously enjoys the sincere commitment of all those involved in it. Most speakers mentioned the important part played by consultation with the disabled in its overall design. But the fact is that until I received an invitation to attend the function I had never heard of the “Craic” project, nor indeed had any of my friends in the disabled community in Cavan. So when the speakers described the amount of “Craic” activity and consultation that had taken place, I wondered whether I had been on another planet lately – perhaps I’d been on another form of crack..I must emphasise that I am not blaming Cavan County Council for this lack of communication. One of the things I have noticed was a reliance on disabled organisations for putting forward the needs of the disabled. When registering there was a very distinct column where I could have identified the name of the organisation to which I belonged, but as this was not applicable, I left it blank – though I was tempted to write “Knights of St Columbanus” or maybe just “KKK”.
I am one of the many disabled people in Ireland who do not actively belong to any association. There are many reasons for this, but let me just say that I choose not to. I suppose I have found over the years that these are not motivated by what I see as my best interests. They often seem more interested in perpetuating a pigeon-holing of the disabled. One of the speakers, Mr Malone, who is County Manager in Kildare, stated the need for a “bottom – up” approach to the question of dealing with accessibility issues. But it is important that the “bottom” in such a model is correctly identified. There must be mechanisms put in place to cleary communicate with all disabled people, not just those who attend frequently pointless tea-parties and other meetings where they are talked down to as retards. It often seems that there exists a Disability establishment, to which I don’t belong and have no desire to belong. I just wouldn’t fit in because I am too articulate and slightly too well-educated.
Communication was an important theme of the contribution of my good friend Josephine Brady, the county librarian. She mentioned how many disabled people were genuinely surprised at being asked for their input. This in turn led to genuine shock on the part of the “Craic” members. But surely they must realise what has been happening here? So-called voluntary organisations supposedly representing the interests of the disabled have been operating for years, but they were the last people to ask the disabled what they wanted. They “knew” what the disabled wanted – what could they want? They were satisfied, with their lot, at the bottom of the heap, imbued with that necessary humility and learned helplessness which told each disabled person that they should keep their mouths shut as society owed them nothing. (I must say though that the National Council for the Blind, thanks to the tireless work of its local social worker Bernie Rawls, no longer falls into this category.)
In its provision of services I cannot fault Cavan County Council. The area that I suppose I know best is the library. The new central library is a bright and happy place. Yet there are areas where Cavan County Council is still failing to make my life as meaningful as it could be and where its intervention is necessary not just for me but for many others.
Bridget Boyle in her contribution, stated that so much of the accessibility issue could be boiled down to the phrase “I want to go where you go.” Well let us see how far that phrase can be applied in the streets of Cavan town. I am able to travel by wheelchair thanks to the wonderful assistance of my girlfriend Rosie. Yet because of uneven surfaces and high kerbs this is not always a very comfortable activity for either of us. There are remarkably few dished footpaths in Cavan town, and many, probably most, are solitary. The sight of one dished footpath lures you off the footpath with the belief that there will be a corresponding dished footpath on the opposite side of the road, or at least nearby. Sadly, this is not the case, and so having left the relative safety of the footpath you and your assistant are then forced on to the open street, in the midst and at the mercy of the oncoming traffic, which I must say is usually very sensitive and patient. On at least one occasion we were forced to retrace our footsteps back to the original dished footpath from which we had alighted.
In an eloquent and incisive contribution Cavan County Manager Jack Keyes made the point that so much of the improvement in the delivery of services can be seen in the context of improvements in customer service. The customer / client must be at the heart of any transaction in either the public or the private sector – I’ve read enough Ram Charan and Tom Peters to know that. It is indeed perverse to think of any commercial entity which trades but which turns away custom. But yet here in Cavan town there are at least two restaurants that do just that. Let us return to what Bridget said: “I want to go where you go”, so what if I want to go to one of those two restaurants whose eating areas are on the first floors of buildings and who do not provide a lift or any other form of access to someone with impaired mobility? I am not talking here about restaurants in old buildings where the insertion of lifts would be prohibitively xpensive, or restaurants where the operators merely rent a floor or a few rooms and is in no position to provide adequate accessibility because they don’t own the building. No, I am talking about those developments which have occurred on green-field sites, or where the internal partitions have been ripped out to make way for eating areas. I can’t get to them. Is there something wrong with my money? But I don’t want to darken their doors, for there are enough truly accessible restaurants in this town. It is sad that the two restaurants in question do have significant links with Cavan County Council, pointing to a degree of regulatory capture. The developer of one is a former employee of Cavan County Council, while one of the owners of the other is a serving member of Cavan County Council, whose business partner is an outgoing member of Ireland’s upper house.
All in all, I was sorry I attended the event. There is something about the presence of a photographer from the Anglo-Celt lining people up for The Shot like the camp commandant arranging a mass execution which makes me feel sick. I suppose I felt depressed at just how out of the loop many disabled people are in Cavan.
I really believe in the commitment of the present county council executive to improving accessibility. Gone thankfully are the sad old days of which the two examples I have outlined are a desperate legacy, and when laughter was definitely suspect. But the council must back up its words with actions. It is obviously thinking hard about what to do, but contemplation has been at a premium in Cavan County Council, a disagreeable, often painful activity, soon eschewed in favour of hackneyed positions and comfort zones. I for one will be keeping a keen, independent eye on what happens.
