‘Youths were spotted holding up traffic with the wheelchair getting a ‘laugh’ out of it…’
THE theft of a wheelchair that was a young boy’s “only form of independence,” has been seen as a “sickening new low” for a family that has battled hardship for the last three years in Thomondgate. 16-year-old Shane Dundon has cerebral palsy and is now house bound because of the actions of a number of youths who stole the wheelchair from the front porch of the family home in Thomondgate last Sunday.
Mother of six, Theresa Dundon, told the Limerick Post that the seat and frame of the chair were found the following day in Hartigan Villas after youths took the wheels and used them for a horse-drawn sulky kart.
“It is bad enough trying to get the council to repair the house, but taking Shane’s only form of independence has really knocked his confidence. He’s upstairs in his room now and can’t or wont come down. He started in St Nessan’s recently and that was a big step for him. I mean, my son has welts on his hands from having to crawl in and out the front door. This is no life for a boy who has suffered to this stage of his life”.
Theresa’s and the lives of her family have taken many set backs as the Limerick woman had to bury her college going son who was murdered in the UK during a random act of violence. With five children now, four of whom live with here in the “decrepit house” in Thomondgate, Theresa says that she has been living on empty promises from the local authority to get her house wheelchair friendly.
“The house is in a very bad way, the shower doesn’t work, the toilet is in a state, the backgarden is like a swimming pool and it’s gone from bad to worse”.
The Dundon family had to move from their original home in Hartigan Villas as the house next-door to their former home was petrol bombed and the council moved them for their own safety.
“I had heroin addicts in the garden shooting up and for fear I had to sleep on the couch. We were all in fear of what random act could happen next and even my son crawled out to the front green at 6am scared out of his wits. The council moved us after the lady next door had her house petrol bombed. Now we have been put into this house and they have just forgotten about us. Letters go unanswered, promises go unfulfilled and I’m told there’s no money there to put in a few ramps.
“It broke my heart to hear Shane say to me, ‘Mam, if I fell outside and broke my neck maybe then they would do something then’”.
Shane’s sister, Nicole, says that this is not the first incident involving a group of up to eight youths “who are taking children’s bikes, hubcaps from cars and stuff like that, but it has taken a step too far this time.
Gardai at Mayorstone are investigating.
Nicole’s frustration continued when she added that the perpetrators of the wheelchair theft are aged “as young as 12 and 13. They shouldn’t go unpunished because of their age. It makes me sick to think that you cant even leave a wheelchair in your own porch without it being stolen.”
