THE US ambassador Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith yesterday presented awards to eight mothers of children with special needs, in a ceremony at her residence in the Phoenix Park.
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Mothers Awards were created last year by the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr Foundation, in Washington DC, to honour mothers of children with mental handicaps in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland.
The awards are named after the ambassador's mother, Mrs Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was herself a mother of a child with special needs.
The women chosen were selected not just for their devotion to their own children but also for the work they have done to improve services to all people with special needs, in areas such as housing, education and transportation.
The prizewinners were: Antoinette Buggle, Prosperous, Co Kildare; Ms Jean Buttimer, Ballineen, Co Cork; Ms Eithne Clarke, Dundrum, Co Dublin; Ms Frances Guinan, Cork city; Ms Heather McCaw, Lisburn, Co Down; Ms Greta McIntyre, Belfast; Ms Jean Spain, Raheny, Co Dublin and Ms Sarah Tate, Tallaght, Co Dublin.