Young man central to education rights for disabled dies

A young man who helped establish the educational rights of people with severe disabilities when his family took an action on his behalf against the State over 20 years ago has died.

Paul O’Donoghue (29), who died at Cork University Hospital on Wednesday and was buried yesterday, made legal history when his mother Marie took an action on his behalf against the Minister for Education, the Minister for Health and the Attorney General in 1993.

Mr O'Donoghue, from Mahon in Cork, was born in November 1984 and contracted a serious viral infection, Reyes Syndrome, at the age of eight months which led to brain damage and resulted in severe mental and physical disabilities.

In 1992, his mother took a High Court action seeking to compel the State to provide free primary education for her son. Represented by Cork solicitor Ernest J Cantillon, she won the right for people with disability to obtain an education.

Mr Justice Rory O’Hanlon in his 1993 ruling found that persons with profound disabilities, no matter how profound, were capable of benefiting from education, and the case established the State had a constitutional obligation to educate such persons.

He ruled that Article 42.2 of the Constitution “gives rise to a constitutional obligation on the part of the State to provide for free primary education for this group of children in as full and as positive a manner as it has done for all other children in the community”.

Senator Deirdre Clune said it was Marie O'Donoghue and her battle on behalf of her son which forced the State to recognise not just her son's right to an education but the educational rights of all children, regardless of their disability.

“Marie O’Donoghue really showed great determination in fighting for Paul’s rights and it’s as a result of her perseverance that we have educational resources like Special Needs Assistance and so much more for people with disabilities,” she said.