The Wheelchair Association, which Lord Dunraven had joined and became its president in 1971, found from a survey in 1976 that 35 per cent of their wheelchair users were confined to their homes. Once there was a film show for them at Adare Manor and for three members, this was the first film they had ever seen because the families had difficulty physically getting them out of the house and also because the cinemas were inaccessible to them. As president of the wheelchair association until 1991, he campaigned for more access to public places about which no one had taken much interest. There were no official figures as to the number of handicapped in Ireland or knowledge of their needs. He articulated to government and local authorities the wants and needs of the association and its members. Partly as a result of his efforts, during his term of office there were enormous changes in society and in legislation in awareness and care of the handicapped. When his father died in 1965, he inherited the titles and Adare Manor, the remarkable Tudor-revival-style house built by the second earl. The house contains a 132ft long and 30ft high hall which the wife of the second earl had described: "Even if only one person is seated at the ample fireplace, the room is so comfortable, one would not wish it in any way changed or diminished." There is an inscription on the house proclaiming: "This goodly house has been built without borrowing, selling or leaving debt."
This would have been an achievement except that coal had just been found on the Wyndham estates in south Wales. The second earl had married the heiress of the Wyndhams and the Quins had added her name to their own and taken their title Dunraven from her estates. Thady Dunraven sold Adare Manor in 1984 to an American businessman who has turned it into a five-star hotel where Bill Clinton has stayed. The family continued to live nearby and have always been deeply involved in Adare and worked with the county council to develop many public facilities in this heritage town. Lord Dunraven gave, among other things, what is now the public park to the council and one of the very last things he did was to attend the opening of the Village Hall after it had been restored. He was also life president of the Limerick Coursing Club. For almost a hundred years, the family had provided the running grounds at Clounanna for the Irish Cup. It was moved to a new venue in 2000, but he continued his interest in the sport and his nomination, Castle Pines, won the Irish Cup in 2005. In 1969, he married Geraldine, the daughter of Air Cmdr Gerald McAleer. She survives him with their daughter, Ana. END
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