Mother of Eve Cleary to run for Mid West Hospital Campaign in general election

Melanie Sheehan Cleary, who is the mother of the late Eve Cleary, will stand for the Mid West Hospital Campaign (MWHC) and the group have hailed her standing as a “political earthquake”.

Ms Cleary was selected to run in the Limerick constituency by the group who aim to reopen a number of local A&E departments in Clare, Tipperary and Limerick.

The campaign is still considering whether to stand candidates in the Clare and Tipperary constituencies.

A spokesperson for MWHC in Limerick, Charlotte Keane, spoke after the selection meeting: “We have tried protests, lobbying our public reps, petitions to Oireachtas committees – but it’s clear that the vested interests behind the decision to downgrade our A&Es in 2009 still hold sway. The politicians aren’t listening to us. To this day, still not one elected TD in Limerick City supports the re-opening of Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s A&Es.

“We warned them in February of 2020 at our protest outside St John’s Hospital that we would come to Dublin if they didn’t re-open our A&Es. This is us following up on that pledge.”

Earlier this year, Ms Sheehan Cleary and her family reached a settlement in the High Court over the death of her 21-year-old daughter who collapsed at home and subsequently died after earlier being discharged from UHL in 2019.

Speaking after her selection, Garryowen native Ms Sheehan Cleary said: “I was never political or active in this way before Eve died. I thought that her death would be the catalyst for change, but nothing happened afterwards. Instead, more families have had to suffer as we did.

“Eve spent 17 hours on a trolley in UHL’s emergency department after she hurt herself slipping and falling on a footpath. A few hours after she was eventually admitted to a ward, she was discharged and told to go home and rest. Less than four hours later she suffered a cardiac arrest, caused by a blood clot that had travelled into her lung.

“I have written to everyone since Eve died – including the previous minister for health, and current Taoiseach – but nobody seems to want to act. Sometimes you wonder if this was happening in Dublin and not in Limerick, would it be allowed to continue?

“Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have clearly committed to a path which in effect means the undermining of our public health system. We always understood that it would take a lot of effort to force them into a U-turn, and we were prepared to put that work in.

“Unfortunately, it seems that Sinn Féin have committed to not rocking the boat on issues such as this in case it might present a barrier to coalition with one of those parties after an election.

“We say that the evidence is overwhelming for the urgent need to restore emergency services in the Midwest. We do not accept that there is any clinical argument that justifies the piling up of people on trolleys in UHL and any further delay will cost lives.

“People might dismiss this as a single-issue campaign, but we will make no apology for making every effort to put this crisis at the top of the national agenda. We have been ignored for far too long! We will have other positions that we will put forward, but the main thing I’d say is we are not going to accept the re-opening of our A&Es at the expense of any other community.”