PROCLAMATION OF INDEPENDENT LIVING
FROM THE DISABLED PEOPLE’S ORGANISATIONS OF IRELAND
TO THE DISABLED AND THE NON-DISABLED PEOPLE OF IRELAND
Written by Peadar O’Dea
Read and Signed by Disability Power Ireland Signatories at the GPO, on Monday, 24th April, 2023, with an Irish translation by Grainne Hallahan.
We do not stand here in the name of God, and we need not refer to some sort of abstract
nationhood, whose authority we claim from past generations.
We are here to summon disabled people and all people in Ireland to the freedom of independent living.
Our independence as disabled people has been proven by the aid of our disabled people’s organisation, Disability Power Ireland (DPI).
Our unassailable rights to live and be included as citizens of this alleged Republic have not been realized.
For too long there have been those who have sought to divide the majority from the minority, but we say, we are indivisible.
We have comrades the world over, such as in America and gallant allies in Europe, but we can rely on our own values and open principles to have full confidence in our eventual victory.
We declare the right of the people of Ireland to access full personal assistance, which will help them assert control over their own lives. Disabled people are blocked from regular personal assistance services. Our rights to these services have long been usurped by non-disabled professionals, medical professionals and government bureaucrats. We stand here and assert our fundamental right to independent living and to be included in our communities. We proclaim to the world that the disabled people of Ireland are a legitimate, independent community with legitimate hopes and dreams.
The disabled people of Ireland are entitled to and hereby demand the proper funding of
independent living services such as a national Personal Assistance Service (PAS), access to accessible housing, accessible healthcare, and an accessible labour market, that values our labour and pays us for it, an end to the wasting of our lives behind the walls of institutions.
We are oblivious to the differences amongst disabled people, that are carefully stoked by governments and charities in order to create a system of dependency and abuse.
All are free, or none are free!
We welcome all people, from all cultural, religious, non-religious, ethnic, gender and sexual backgrounds, for anyone can become disabled at any time.
We place the cause of disability liberation within the protection of the people of Ireland who have power over the state and deity to make meaningful, lasting change in this country. The hereby constituted coalition of DPO’s will continue to fight for the rights of a more equitable society, not just equality before the law and equality of opportunity, but fraternity, liberty and equality of inclusion.
Signed by the following:
Peadar O’Dea
Maryam Madani
Isolde O’Brolcháin Carmody
Ross Coleman
Grainne Hallahan
Sophia Mulvaney
Leesa Flynn
Angela Mazzocco
Declan Meenagh
Brendan Mulvaney
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