Sir, – My name is Alannah Murray, and I’m a 20-year-old film and television student at Dundalk Institute of Technology. I’m also one of the many people in Ireland with a disability. College is obviously hectic at this time of year, and I was lucky enough to get a ticket to Bruno Mars at the 3Arena in Dublin. He put on a very energetic show, or so I hear.
Yes, I was there, but I didn’t see a thing.
Why? Because in the seating area in front of me, there was a sea of people standing. The couple in front of me was asked to sit down multiple times, and eventually they just looked back at us in the disabled area, shrugged, and went back to dancing and flailing. The girl beside me looked close to tears.
The point is, we all paid for our tickets.
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We paid for the same experience that all these people were there for, and we paid to have a night where we could get out of our own lives and just enjoy ourselves. That didn’t happen on Saturday night.
What happened was that we were ignored and brushed off, and I think it says a lot for how little concern people have for disabled people in this country. Ignorance is still rife. I know I’m not the only one to complain about this, there have been people who have contacted the 3Arena and the concert promoters and we’re consistently ignored.
I’m tired of being ignored, and I truly believe that if we make enough noise then people will start listening and recognising the issues with how people are treated. – Yours, etc,
ALANNAH MURRAY,
Virginia,
Co Cavan.