Kay McShane's family want Spike Island tribute removed if access is not improved

There is no wheelchair accessible bus transport from the island’s harbour up to the main fort, which had been due to host an exhibition about the Paralympian and disability rights campaigner

Kay McShane won the London Marathon women's wheelchair race three times in a row between 1984 and 1986 and won bronze and silver medals in the 1984 and 1988 summer Paralympics.

The family of a leading Paralympian is considering asking for a celebration of her life to be removed from the Spike Island website.

They say they will ask the Spike Island Development Company Limited (SIDCL) to take the 1,246-word tribute down if they do not provide visitors to the island with a wheelchair-accessible bus.

The tribute is here.

The demand stems from an ongoing dispute between the family of the late disability rights campaigner Kay McShane and island management.

This is because there is no wheelchair accessible bus transport from the island’s harbour up to the main fort, which had been due to host an exhibition about Ms McShane.

The medal-winning disabilities rights campaigner, who died in 2019 at the age of 70, had grown up on the island and was one of its most celebrated former residents.

After she left, she went on to — among other things — win the London Marathon women's wheelchair race three times in a row between 1984 and 1986.

As well as setting a record for consecutive wins that was unrivalled for almost 20 years, she also won bronze and silver medals in the 1984 and 1988 summer Paralympics.

Anybody in a wheelchair who wants to visit the island’s fort has to be pushed uphill from the pier along a 400m route which includes what the island’s website describes as 'a short sharp hill'. Picture: David Creedon

“There is a large amount of irony in a venue hosting an exhibition about the life and times of a woman like Kay that isn’t actually fully accessible to people in a wheelchair,” her sister Anne told the Irish Examiner.

“We have really tried hard to resolve this issue but we just aren't getting very far.

“We would love an exhibition about her life to go ahead and we like the fact that the Spike Island website carries a tribute to her.

But we find it very hard to see how the island management can, on one hand plan to host an exhibition about her life but on the other hand not put in place a fully accessible bus service.

“I feel conflicted about this because I don’t see why the island management can, through their online tribute, claim her memory and the association with the island if they are not prepared to provide something Kay herself would have fought for.” 

She pointed out that anybody in a wheelchair who wants to visit the island’s fort has to be pushed uphill from the pier along a 400m route which includes what the island’s website describes as “a short sharp hill”.

Elderly or infirm visitors have in the past used an island bus service but this would need to be adapted or replaced if wheelchairs were to also be accommodated on it.

The SIDCL has said in the past it has “strived to make the site as wheelchair friendly as possible”.

Anne is due to present a petition of over 1,000 signatories to elected representatives of the Cobh District on Cork County Council on Tuesday at 2.45pm.

This petition urges Spike Island Development Company Limited to provide accessible transport on Spike Island.