No limits as Joanne shines on Late Late

THE teenager widely credited with persuading the Government to perform a rapid U-turn on disability benefit cuts got a rapturous welcome on the Late Late Show last night.

Joanne O’Riordan, aged 15, was born with total amelia, which means she has no arms and legs.

She penned a letter to the Irish Examiner — which appeared on the front page — in which she castigated Enda Kenny for going back on a promise he made not to cut such benefits.

Last February, prior to the general election, the courageous teenager got a commitment that Fine Gael would not cut the benefits, when she quizzed Enda Kenny who was canvassing in her home town of Millstreet, Co Cork.

The interview was caught on camera and was played back to an appalled nation after the December 6 budget announcement that cuts were to be made to the most vulnerable section of society.

The Government was forced into a speedy U-turn, but Joanne still let rip at the Taoiseach for even contemplating cutting benefits.

In her letter she said such cuts would have left her and other disabled people excluded from living a fully independent and quality life.

“You can beat a big guy,” she told Ryan Tubridy. Despite the promise that was not kept, then was, Joanne said she liked Enda Kenny as a person.

Joanne, who recently won a West Cork Garda Youth Award for her achievements, is only one of seven people in the world to have total amelia.

Despite the obvious restrictions, she maintains she was “born in the right era”, because the technology available now helps her immensely.

“I love technology. Technology is me,” she said.

The transition year student said she would have liked to have had a robot to help her do things, but has her own independence and a remarkable sense of humour which enthralled the Late Late Show audience and TV viewers alike.

She said she was like any other teenager and loved to go to concerts and GAA matches.

She was accompanied to the show by her parents, Joe and Ann, and her brother, Stephen, who is making a documentary about Joanne’s life.

Joanne, who said she’d love to be a journalist or TV presenter, is working on a project for the BT Young Scientist Exhibition with her friend Nadine Spillane. No Limbs, No Limits shows how people with disabilities can achieve their goals.