High Court settlement ends decade-long battle for family of Calum Geary

Andrew Geary and his wife Helen, who campaigned for an in-classroom Irish Sign Language teacher and interpreter for their son, say at times felt like the State was trying to pull them apart

Calum Geary with his twin brother Donnacha and dad Andrew on the 'Late Late Show' in 2021. The Cork family first began campaigning when Calum entered primary school.

The family of profoundly deaf boy Calum Geary has settled their High Court battle and revealed the toll a decade-long fight for his education has had on them.

Andrew Geary and his wife Helen, who campaigned for an in-classroom Irish Sign Language teacher and interpreter for their son, say the family has been "scarred deeply" and at times felt that the State was trying to pull them apart. Mr Geary said:

"The State cannot keep doing this to families, we are supposed to be a rights-based democracy, the State should have been supporting us, not fighting us."

The Cork family first began campaigning when Calum entered primary school and had "many false dawns and erroneous promises" along the way. However, Mr Geary said nothing prepared him for the demands of the legal challenge which they mounted in 2021.

The toll of the last two years has been enormous, though hopefully worth it. The whole practice of forcing families to go to the High Court has scarred us deeply.

Their recent High Court settlement means the 14-year-old, who has started secondary school, will now have the support of a fully qualified sign-language interpreter in the classroom.

This means that Calum has been able to take up subjects including French in Bishopstown Community School in Cork City.

"Calum is thriving, he has great access to all his subjects in school. All his teachers tell us how able he is. I am blown away by how far he has come in such a short time," his father said.

However, it has been an extremely long and difficult road for the family, who would have had to sell their home to pay the €100,000 in legal costs if they lost the case.

Looking back on the case, Mr Geary, who has had a career with the gardaí, said: 

"I felt like my two life loves, my family and my country were tearing me apart. My own country was trying to pull me apart, this was very hard to comprehend. As a community volunteer for most of my life and public servant it is hard to comprehend what our state imposes upon parents, campaigners, and carers if they dare to raise their heads above the parapet and actually ask for something.

I always thought in a rights-based republic, the one envisioned by our founders, this state would campaign for equality, freedom of expression and education not fight you every inch of the way.

Deaf children's rights 

Calum’s first language is Irish Sign Language (ISL), which is recognised as one of Ireland's official languages under the Irish Sign Language Act 2017, which also places a statutory duty on every public body to provide free interpretation for all statutory services and entitlements, including education.

The Gearys and other families in their position had argued that the lack of proper supports in schools had denied deaf children their rights. Mr Geary added: "We hopefully can just get back to being parents, recharge our souls. This time we hope as family we have reached our destination and not another junction on the road to access."

He also paid special thanks to his legal team of senior council Derek Shortall, barrister John Temple, and solicitor Sinead Mulhall and would have been "completely lost without them".

Fianna Fáil's Padraig O'Sullivan, who was among a number of TDs to raise Calum's story in the Dáil, has now asked Mr Geary to tell his family's story to an Oireachtas Committee later this month.

While Mr O'Sullivan welcomed the recent decision to provide interpreters to all deaf children, he said Calum and others like him have lost out on many years of education.

Last year Education Minister Norma Foley gave a commitment to create new Irish Sign Language (ISL) interpreter positions to assist children in schools. However, the Department had not fully finalised the details of the scheme in time for the new school term last September, and some families have yet to be given the support due to difficulties in recruiting the interpreters.

Mr O'Sullivan suggested that compensation, whether through additional resources or other means, should be considered to make up for that lost education.

"Any child that has any type of disability, learning difficulty, intellectual disability, they are the people the State needs to look after most, unfortunately, in this case, it took the state a number of years to respond to the demonstrable need that was there. It's a pity it took so long."