The Gazette 1981

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1981

Law Society Symposia . . . . . . . very worthwhile"

The closing speaker was Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, V.C., D.S.O., D.F.C., founder of the Cheshire Homes, who came to Dublin especially to attend the symposium. The President of the Society, Mrs. Moya Quinlan, welcomed the Minister and participants and presided at the first sessions. Other sessions were under the chair- manship of the Hon. T. F. O'Higgins, Chief Justice; David Weston, Chairman, Union of Voluntary Organ- isations for the Handicapped; and Frank O'Donnell Vice-President of the Law Society. A further symposium associated with the International Year of Disabled Persons has been organised by the Law Society to examine the problems of the mentally handi- capped. This will take place at the Downhill Hotel Ballina, on June 27th. Other symposia in the current year will be under the general title of The Builder and the Law (May 16th) and Medicine and the Law (October 17th), both at Blackhall Place. Symposia arranged by the Society's Public Relations Committee are intended to provide a forum for the ventilation of the views and interests of the various groups embraced by the titles, accessible to the media, and, at the same time, to gain for the profession some insight into the views and problems of the groups concerned. Members of the Society are welcome to attend but by reason of space and catering limitations, must notify their intentions to the Public Relations Committee at least one week before the date of the symposium.

"There's a lot of information coming out of it . . . " "People are hearing things they didn't know before "The sessions were very worthwhile . . . " "Vox pop" comments from members of the audience during the lunchbreak at the Society's symposium on "The Physically Handicapped and the Future" at Blackhall Place in January. The symposium was opened by Dr. Michael Woods, Minister for Health and Social Welfare, and attended by over eighty representatives of public bodies and voluntary organisations. The subjects covered were: The Early Assessment of Disablement (Dr. Neil O'Doherty, Professor of Paediatrics, Temple Street Hospital, Dublin); An Overview of the Situation in Ireland relating to Disablement { Pauline Faughnan, Deputy C.E.O., Irish Wheelchair Association); Education, Employment and Rehabilitation (Dr. T. M. Gregg, Medical Director, National Rehabilitation Board, and Frank Flannery, General Manager, Rehabilitation Institute); Design for Living (Seán Rothery, B.Arch., who showed a number of slides of good and bad architecture in rela- tion to handicapped persons); The Law as Perceived by the Consumer (Brian M alone, Chairman, Irish Wheelchair Association); The Legal Protection of the Handicapped Person's Assets (Patrick O'Connor, Solicitor).

Photographed at the Symposium were (left to right): Mrs. Moya Quinlan, President of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland, Mr. Patrick O'Connor, Solicitor, and Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, founder of the Cheshire Homes.

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