Until recently, Brendan McLoughlin, a wheelchair user, was forced to use public toilets in his native Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin. He had identified three suitable toilets in the coastal town which were a few minutes' journey from his parental home.
As his multiple sclerosis has progressed, Brendan is no longer mobile enough to use a toilet, so this particular humiliation has been brought to an end. However, the daily tribulations of life with a disability continues, with Brendan's parents caring for him, apart from the twice-weekly visits by a public health nurse and trips to a day-care centre.
The 40-year-old would like to live in supported accommodation, which would afford him some independence as well as dignity, but there are no places available.
This week, he was fortunate enough to get to spend some time in Ardeen Cheshire Home in Shillelagh, Co Wicklow, a former estate house and the first of the Cheshire Ireland's accommodation centres. The facility offers residency to 32 clients and respite care to six, with cheery care staff joined by young and enthusiastic volunteers from Europe under the good-natured watch of its manager, Mr Jarlath Tunney.
Its peaceful rural setting makes it a real escape for people like Brendan, who praises the staff's hospitality and "tremendous will to help".
Brendan lived and worked in Sweden for many years before returning to Ireland with his family to work in the Celtic Tiger economy, in 1996. Then he became ill and his world changed. Today, he resents the fact that he finds himself effectively homeless in this affluent society. "I don't feel I'm being respected as a human being. It isn't my fault I got sick and if I hadn't maybe I'd be driving around in my BMW. I think disabled people are treated badly in Ireland, compared to Sweden," he says.
Mr Tunney says there is huge demand for the centre's six respite places. "Even with 25 places we would not be able to meet the demand. Respite is a great link to helping people to manage as long as they can in the absence of full-term solutions."