Kerryman & father with addictions to Rallying, GAA, Guinness & Vintage cars!

Joined April 2013
120 Photos and videos
Stephen O'Connell retweeted
An internal report obtained by The Ditch has exposed hospital consultants prioritising private child patients over those on public lists – with public patients forced to wait significantly longer for vital surgery. ontheditch.com/internal-repo…
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
'I blew the whistle on Harvey case at CHI' ✍️ Maeve Sheehan A former manager at Children's Health Ireland (#CHI) has revealed she is the whistleblower who flagged concerns around Harvey Morrison Sherratt's care. Anita Little, a former spinal services business manager, who settled a legal employment dispute with CHI last week, told the Sunday Independent: "Yes, I can confirm I am the whistleblower." She said she made a protected disclosure to the Health Minister after it came to her attention that Harvey who suffered from complex scoliosis and spina bifida, had been inexplicably removed from the waiting list. He died, aged nine. last July. "I felt the Minister for Health had the power to find out what happened with Harvey" she said. "I was also aware that his parents did not know he had been removed from the waiting list which is just absolutely outrageous." Standing by the allegations she made in a protected disclosure, which was sent to the minister last August 31, Ms Little said she is willing to testify at the statutory inquiry or any inquiry. "There are patients at risk due to suboptimal processes, lack of transparency, communication and waiting-list management practices at CHI." In a statement to the Sunday Independent, Ms Sherratt [@GillSherratt23] said the family still has no answers, two years after Harvey was removed from the waiting list. Ms Sherratt added the scope of the inquiry must be “wide” and “deep” enough “to truly uncover everything that’s been allowed to go on at CHI”. #PublicInquiryCHi #Whistleblower #JusticeforHarvey #CHI #HowIrelandWorks *Edited Front Page* independent.ie/irish-news/i-…
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
Speaking of misleading:
A good example of a misleading headline attached to an otherwise well written article - useful for any media studies class. Weak editor in situ. The facts:- Ireland's relatively lower taxes, levies and government supports mean electricity prices in Ireland are the 15th highest in the EU - that is about average.
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
Well done @MichealMartinTD and @SimonHarrisTD The stark reality of this governments ability to run a nation. So sad and many more businesses to follow
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
He told the disabled community recently that we couldn’t afford a €400 cost-of-disability emergency payment.
We recognise and understand the pressures that have arisen due to rising fuel costs on all families and businesses. I am very conscious that we must support people, protect key services and make critical investments. This package is a significant response to real pressures.
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
Simon Harris on RTE six one news saying because of the fuel protestors “cancer treatments can’t go ahead”. Using cancer treatment as a weapon is really scrapping the bottom of the barrel.
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
. @SimonHarrisTD, I can share my journey with cancer, starting from my diagnosis at 13 years old. I can share how I was failed & why I will die prematurely due to a lack of proper care. Do you care? I don’t think so. Trying to raise concern now isn't genuine, it’s shameful
Simon Harris on RTE six one news saying because of the fuel protestors “cancer treatments can’t go ahead”. Using cancer treatment as a weapon is really scrapping the bottom of the barrel.
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
Mikey’s case has been raised time and time again in the Dáil, @conwaywalsh is constantly advocating for him and his family and it breaks my heart to see he is still left waiting in limbo. His family had been trying to get in touch with @CarrollJennifer last year and their emails were going unanswered (surprisingly). So when we went in to meet the health minister and Tánaiste, I pulled her aside and gave her Mikey’s mam’s contact details on paper directly to her. Mikey is most definitely known to government. His situation and his health decline is common knowledge within the Dáil, yet he is still left waiting with no plan of care. His family are advocating, and pleading their hearts out while our government enjoy a lovely long Easter break. @CarrollJennifer @SimonHarrisTD @HSELive
Ongoing Scoliosis Scandal Why do we tolerate the cruelty being inflicted on children by CHI? A DISTRAUGHT mother and father have urged Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to help save their only son's life - ✍️ Valerie Hanley Michael and Penny Henry's eldest child Mikey has a rare neurological condition as well as scoliosis. And the 17-year-old's spine has become so curved it is almost three times worse than the optimum to benefit from surgery. The best outcomes are if the spine has not curved beyond 45 degrees. But the curvature of the Mayo teenager's spine has already reached 130 degrees. Waiting Lists According to the most recent figures, the total number of children awaiting surgery has not changed with 241 in February 2025, and exactly the same 12 months later. #CHI #MikeyHenry #Scoliosis #BackUs #PublicInquiryCHi @IrishMailSunday
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
In tomorrow’s Kerry’s Eye Sport Kerry Kennelly’s picture shows that Conor Lane had a bird’s eye view of the Michael Murphy incident
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
The Kerry CAMHS Scandal In ⁦@HSELive⁩ May Just Be Tip Of The Iceberg - Maskey Report (Kerry South) & Halpin Report (Kerry North) Describe Unsafe Appointment Of Non-Qualified Doctors - Inappropriate Prescribing & Chemical Sedation Of Children Consistent With Criminal Assault
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
As someone that was in the room in the meeting with @CarrollJennifer This is *not * what was agreed to. @SimonHarrisTD you also know full and well that this isn’t what the inquiry was supposed to look like. Trying to control the narrative or the scope of the inquiry makes me wonder what it is you’re all trying to hide? Why is it that our government is always so focused on self preservation and not actually ever doing what’s right for the people it’s *supposed* to serve and protect?
Govt appoints facilitators for spinal care, Shine probes via @RTENews rte.ie/news/2026/0228/156095…
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
Please Watch & Share -From Surgical Waitlists, Cuts To SNAs To Zero Therapies -Casual & Cynical Cruelty -‘not a good idea to drop your child off at a hospital’ -System Humiliates & Threatens Older #Carers & #Disabled Citizens In Crisis-Horrific Truth About Ableist Ireland #UNCRPD
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
Great Analysis From Mary Regan: SNA controversy exposes State’s ingrained attitude to people with disabilities -✊Quote ‘the historically ingrained belief that what the State offers to those with greatest need is a benefit, rather than an essential right’ independent.ie/irish-news/po…
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
When even the radio presenter Gaving Jennings throws his hands in the air with confusion. A Car crash interview on the SNA Fiasco with Minister of State for Education Michael Moynihan this morning. I can be very clear "we've paused the process" he says.🫣 #MorningIreland #SNAs #WorstGovernmentEver #Paused
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
Well done to Tom Clonan for highlighting this. The HSE’s response was appalling. Suggesting a parent who has been completely abandoned by the system to someone simply 'dropping a child off' at A&E shows exactly where the problem lies. Saying you have professional empathy is meaningless when your actions prove the exact opposite. Disgraceful. #HSE #Accountability #TomClonan #DisabilityRights
TRIGGER ALERT - Ireland’s SHAME #Carers Told By @HSELive They 100% Legally Responsible For ‘Accommodation & Care’ Of Adult #Disabled Citizens ‘Until They DIE’ -An Ableist Trope -That Family Are 100% Responsible For #Disabled Citizens With ZERO Support -REJECTED In Care Referendum
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
This was last SEPTEMBER. Still no change on the decision to operate on katie
15 years, 3 months, and 5 days of HSE failure. That is how long Katie has been waiting. Katie was diagnosed with hip dysplasia on 24 September 2010. Today, more than 15 years later, she is still living with the consequences of a diagnosis that was known, documented, and repeatedly raised — yet never properly acted upon by the Health Service Executive. For 15 years, 3 months, and 5 days, Katie has lived with: Cerebral palsy A severely dysplastic hip A twisted femur A retroverted pelvis A hip joint shaped more like a saucer than a socket, offering no stability Every step she takes costs her. Every year of delay has allowed her condition to worsen. We fought. We pleaded. We escalated. We confronted @MichealMartinTD. We made @BernardGloster aware. Our ministers for health as far back as @AnneRabbitte did absolutely nothing. Her surgeons just gave us excuses until we got Micheál Martin involved And still — nothing changed. We were met with delays, deflection, and silence. What could have been treated years ago is now urgent and complex. The surgery Katie needs — a GANZ-type femoral and pelvic osteotomy — is not available to her here. The only surgeon who can safely perform this surgery for Katie is Dr. Dror Paley in Florida. This is why we are fundraising. Not for comfort. Not for extras. But for life-changing surgery that should never have taken over 15 years to secure. 💔 €300,000 is the cost of prolonged delay. 💔 It is the cost of missed intervention. 💔 It is the cost of a child growing up in pain while systems failed her. Katie should not still be waiting. But she is. 👉 Please help us give Katie a future without constant pain. 👉 Donate if you can. Share if you can’t. 👉 Every single euro brings her closer to surgery. 🔗 Donate here: gofundme.com/f/help-katie-ge… 15 years, 3 months, and 5 days is long enough. This is not complexity. This is failure.
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
The Irish government will happily spend 9 million euro on phone pouches for schools but won’t spend €30,000 a year on a Special Needs Assistant. This is how much Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil don’t give a shit about children.
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Stephen O'Connell retweeted
Oh look the state threatening parents and reminding them of their “legal” obligation to their “disabled adult children” because the state is failing them. Do you remember the care #referendum? The one that wanted to make it so the state would never be held accountable around caring for its disabled citizens. Well that was defeated but it seems the policy is still very much one the state wants to pursue. x.com/irishexaminer/status/2…
HSE apologises to mother of intellectually disabled adult child over 'threatening' letter irishexaminer.com/news/munst…
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