The seventh Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl has died at the age of 71 at his home in Kilgobbin, Co Limerick, and with him die the titles of one of those rare families of true Gaelic origin in the Irish peerage. His ancestors, the O'Quins, were chiefs of the Clan Hy Ifearnan in Co Clare who were driven from there by the O'Briens. Thady Quin acquired the lands at Adare towards the end of the 17th century. Thady Dunraven was educated at Ludgrove School in England and at Le Rosey in Switzerland. In the summer of 1956, he was one of the 500 people, mostly children, who contracted polio during the Cork epidemic. By the time the symptoms appeared, he had returned to school in Switzerland so he was able to benefit from the Swiss medical expertise of the disease, but he was in a wheelchair for the rest of this life. On his return to Ireland, he lived as normal a social life of a young man as possible, but he did notice few other wheelchair users were to be seen at public events. He was aware he could afford to get what he needed with regard to special equipment and full-time care, but when visiting members of the Polio Fellowship in Limerick, he realised that most people in wheelchairs were looked after by their families who were often elderly parents or were family members who were out at work all day. There was no wheelchair access to public places and no help to get it within the home. CONTINUED
1952
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