'Enough is enough': Hundreds attend protest for special needs education in Cork

Banners held high at the protest by parents whose children have no school places. Picture: Larry Cummins

Enough is enough, finding a school for your child shouldn’t be so tough – the words of young rapper Martin Crowley at a protest in Cork about a lack of school places for children with special needs.

Martin, a member of Kabin Krew and from Knocknaheeny, wrote the words as part of a longer rap in recent days, in frustration that the fight to find a place in secondary school for his brother Patrick is already underway, even though Patrick is only in 5th class.

The 11-year-old, who is autistic, was joined by his mother Ellen at the protest, which attracted hundreds of people from across Cork county. 

She praised St Mary’s on the Hill primary school in Knocknaheeny where he is in mainstream education, but said she is now starting the search to find a place in a special class for Patrick for secondary school.

The protest followed a similar gathering in Dublin a week earlier, and was addressed by Nicole Hosford, who also attended the Dublin protest.

Her daughter Libbycrae is four years old and Nicole has not been able to secure a school place for her. 

She said her family has paid more than €10,000 for therapies for her child, who is autistic. She said the journey she and her husband have followed has been life changing.

She said that she is her daughter’s voice and she said: “I will not stop until I am in Buckleys on Shandon Street, buying her uniform for school, like I did with my first child.” 

She said there are close to 100 children in Cork without a place in special classes or special schools, as well as up to 200 in Dublin.

Leah O’Flaherty from Carrigaline said she was joined by friends and family and was there for “all the other kids in the country with ASD and additional needs, and they need everybody here to shout and roar for them today.” 

The protest followed a similar gathering in Dublin a week earlier, and was addressed by Nicole Hosford, who also attended the Dublin protest. Picture: Larry Cummins

She said her five-year-old son Liam “was rejected from every single special school in Cork city and county and he is on a wait list for school places that do not exist.” 

She said he has no place for school in September – “him and countless others around the country are being denied their constitutional right to an education and we as a society are failing the most vulnerable and the most in need of our support.” 

She continued: “No-one should be denied the right to go to school to make friends, and we as Irish citizens, we need to make sure that no child falls through the cracks of a broken system. We should not punish any child for something they cannot help. My son and your kids did not choose this. I am pleading here today for change. 

Please, please, I am begging our government, do not punish my child and everyone else for something that they did not choose. They are innocent kids. They deserved to be cherished, not rejected from the system.

She added: “They may be different, but they are not less.” 

She pledged to her son that she would “continue to speak for you until you get there yourself.” 

Leanne Thompson told the crowd that her son Eldon has been turned down by six special schools in Cork. She said her son “climbs things, he bites things, he hits himself – everything.” 

She added: “It is an everyday struggle with Eldon.” 

He will be five years old later this month and Leanne says he may not be able to start school until he is nearly 7 because it will be at least 2026 now before he can get a place.

She said: “It’s just a constant battle.” 

She added: “When you become a mam, you never expect that you have to start fighting for a school place this hard for them.”