Walk on by?

When they take up the invitation to the access exercise, councillors at least have the luxury of knowing that when their wheelchairs get stuck and they're getting increasingly rain-soaked and self-conscious about obstructing traffic or other pedestrians, there are people at hand to help them, or ultimately, they can decide to get out and walk on. "Let them see what it's really like to get stuck. On numerous occasions I've had to wait for hours. When you get a puncture or a wheel breaks, you're stuck, all you can do is look at your watch and wait for someone to come," says wheelchair-user Billy Grey from Drung. Winston Bennett, Sean McKiernan and Senator Kathryn Reilly were the local public representatives who took on the challenge of participating in the exercise during Cavan County Council's Social Inclusion Week, where County Cavan Access Association, chaired by Amanda O'Keefe, invited non-users of wheelchairs to join users and have a go at getting around Cavan. On a rainy Saturday morning, the group met at Cavan Cathedral and after some commotion around finding a safe way to cross over to Church Street proceeded down Cavan Town's main thoroughfare. Full story in this week's Anglo-Celt.