Family devastated after funding refused for Joanne O'Riordan film

Quadriplegic Joanne O'Riordan will not now be the subject of a documentary film after the Irish Film Board turned down a funding application for the project.

Stephen O'Riordan, Joanne's brother, is the documentary maker behind the project.

He said that the family are devastated by the decision after he felt that initial soundings from the Board had been very enthusiastic.

He said: "We were completely devastated in the sense that, looking at Joanne's story and looking at what she's achieved in the last few months and going back as far as December last year with the Budget cut and all that kind of thing I just felt that Joanne's story was appropriate or had the potential to capture the imagination of a national audience in the sense of a cinematic documentary."