IT WAS a hard battle but Marie O'Donoghue won the right to have her quadriplegic and profoundly mentally handicapped child educated by the State.
She had brought the case to the High Court in May, 1993, on behalf of her son Paul, who was then aged eight, on the grounds that the State's failure to provide him with a free primary education was an infringement of his constitutional rights.
This week Marie O'Donoghue is back in the Four Courts - this time in the Supreme Court - because the State has appealed Mr Justice O'Hanlon's decision.
"This is all about money," she told The Irish Times yesterday. "At the moment the courts are directly responsible for Paul's education. If the Minister gets it back into her power it will all be done on the cheap. We have fought so hard already and they were ruthless the last time. Our children's future will be bleak if they win. The State showed no interest in these children in the past until it was forced to."
If money is scarce for such children, asked Ms O'Donoghue, why did the Minister for Education "spend so much money on providing free third level education which is not a right under the Constitution?"
The 1993 court case went on for seven days and is estimated to have cost at least £500,000. The appeal begins on Thursday.
On that day the Association for Severely Profoundly Mentally Handicapped (Cork) will present a petition with 25,000 signatures to the Department of Education in protest at the appeal.
In the High Court case the State had claimed Paul could not benefit from a system which offered the accepted academic subjects, but Mr Justice O'Hanlon said to guarantee of education under the Constitution referred to more than book learning.
At the time he gave Ms O'Donoghue liberty to apply to the court in the future should the State fail to respond by taking whatever action was appropriate to vindicate the boy's constitutional rights.
Paul is now aged 12 and goes to school daily. According to his mother his face lights up as he approaches St Paul's Special School in the COPE Foundation,
"Paul knows where he is going and he knows that this is his teacher. He has the same right to go to school in the morning as everyone else," said Mr O'Donoghue, who lives in Blackrock, Cork city.
She says Paul was "perfect" until he contracted Reye's Disease at eight months, which left him severely brain damaged. He is now in a wheelchair and totally dependent. He has no speech but vocalises. "He has wonderful bright eyes and loves life and music. He is a very happy boy who loves to interact with other children," said Ms O'Donoghue.
At present he is in a class of six children, with one teacher and two care assistants, the ratio ordained by the High Court judgment.
Ms O'Donoghue, who is separated from Paul's father, said that children with severe or profound mental handicap need to learn in a very structured situation with a lot of individual attention. "They need to learn things that other children take for granted, such as head control and turning their head from left to right, relaxation, eye tracking, nature walks. School also has an important social aspect."
Ms O'Donoghue estimates that there are about 300 children being educated in a similar way to Paul, but over 2,500 others are "catered for in a different way, either in centres or at home. But we believe that they would all benefit from education in this way.
She began her legal action because she had spent years "going around in circles" trying to educate her son.
"Everyone was saying he Was everyone else's responsibility. I finally realised he was nobody's responsibility. Because he had severe profound handicap he did come under the Department of Health, but he is not sick, just handicapped. They kept saying he was ineducable despite the fact that this type of education is compulsory in a number of other countries."
She is as determined to fight this latest battle to ensure her son joins the rest of the State's children in going to school each morning.
"I want my son to go to school because it gives him an opportunity to develop to the best of his ability and reach his potential. That's all I want for Paul - to be the best he can be."