Family of wheelchair-using man condemns facilities
Joseph Hargrow, who played minor hurling for Limerick in 2003, had to queue in the rain to get into the recent Limerick and Tipperary game, after his sister, who drove him to the game, was turned away from the stadium car park.
And when he got in, there was no sheltered area for fans in wheelchairs.
Yesterday, Nancy Keyes said her brother, 19, was faced with "ignorance and indifference" when she brought him to the Ennis Road venue.
She said: "My brother is an avid Limerick hurling fan. He had a wheelchair pass and we arrived at the Gaelic Grounds two hours before the match, to be told he could not enter the car park because there were limited spaces."
But their problems were only beginning, having had to park a distance away in a housing estate.
She said they eventually got into the grounds after queuing in the rain.
She said: "Joseph decided he would try to take shelter a few rows back in the Mackey Stand, so after a lot of pulling and dragging he eventually sat on a seat at the end of the row."
Supporters in wheelchairs are accommodated at the front of the stand, with little shelter when it rains.
She said it seemed until the people in charge of making these decisions come face to face with spending every day in a wheelchair, "the ignorance, the inequality of the disabled, will continue".
Gaelic Grounds event controller Tim Ryan sympathised with the plight of the young Staker Wallace club man.
He said: "There is a difficulty here, but we are faced with other problems. We cannot extend the roof of the Mackey Stand as there is a problem with planning that goes back to 1987. One option would be to get rid of a few rows of seats and move the wheelchairs back a few rows."
He added he would try to find better cover for wheelchair users.
