Watch Cork City's Lord Mayor sing to welcome Ireland's first dementia-inclusive shopping centre

Mahon Point has become Ireland’s first dementia-inclusive shopping centre 

The halls were alive with the sound of music as Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Kieran McCarthy officially launched the first dementia-inclusive shopping centre in Ireland on Tuesday. Picture: Chani Anderson

A once-fraught trip to the shops just got a little easier for Noreen O’Callaghan and her devoted carer, Helen Kehoe, with the launch of Ireland's first dementia-inclusive shopping centre.

Noreen, 79, who was diagnosed with dementia over a decade ago, burst into song with the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, at Mahon Point shopping centre in Cork on Tuesday as the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland (ASI) began its first day of specialised dementia-inclusive training sessions for its retail staff to help them provide a welcoming and positive shopping environment to people living with dementia, and their families.