Mural remembers people in the IWA Community

THE Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) in Lucan officially unveiled a new mural last Friday.

Painted in an area between Lucan, Newcastle, Clondalkin, and Tallaght, the mural memorialises those in the Lucan IWA community who have passed away during the last 18 months, reports Maddie Mueller.

Service manager Ciaran McLoughlin called the project a way to “celebrate people’s lives and people’s contributions”.

“We’re not just unveiling a mural but unveiling our future as well,” he said. “We’re putting ourselves into the community.”

The actual painting of the mural only took two to three weeks, but the consultation process took about six months. IWA staff and service users input many of their own ideas into the design of the mural, and Ciaran said artist Michael Murphy “painted exactly what people wanted”.

In the midst of the mural’s planning phase this past April, tragedy struck. Lucan centre manager Declan Ryan, also a father and husband, died in an accident.

Declan had spent 21 years in the Air Corps before getting his social work degree by attending night school.  As part of his training, he spent hundreds of hours at IWA as part of a work placement.

After graduating, he applied for a vacancy at IWA and began working there full time. A few weeks before his passing, Declan was promoted to centre manager at the facility.

“In a short space, he had such a huge impact,” said Ciaran. “Nothing was too much for him.”

Back when the first lockdown began, long before he was the centre manager, Declan hand-delivered Easter eggs to people’s homes to help families celebrate one of the first holidays of the pandemic. His kind spirit and giving nature is fondly remembered by those who knew him.

The community at IWA wanted to honor Declan and celebrate his contributions to the organisation, so the mural design was changed to feature an airplane as a tribute to Declan and his service.

“He would love it,” said Ciaran about the mural. “When people look at it, they smile.”

In total, 12 IWA service users and four staff members from the Lucan centre have died in the past 18 months. Their names were painted on the mural to celebrate the contributions they have made to the community.

The IWA logo is displayed proudly near the centre of the piece, and should help generate some community interest in the organisation.

The left hand side of the mural reads ‘ideas have small beginnings’. Each person at IWA brings a unique perspective and original thinking to the community, but they all come together as one and, in Ciaran’s words, “makes the whole of what we are”.

There are about ninety people in the IWA Lucan family, including both staff and service users. The centre provides all kinds of social services for people with disabilities; coordinating sports and activities, providing transportation, and even offering some educational courses.

“We facilitate what you want to do,” said Ciaran.

The centre is committed to offering personalised service for each person who is involved.

The IWA is a large network with over 25,000 members across Ireland, making it easy to “tap into national services” according to Ciaran. All of the services provided by IWA are free, making it a valuable resource for anyone using a wheelchair.

One of the more recent IWA initiatives is focused on providing transport specifically to and from vaccination centres in addition to the usual transportation services run by the organisation.

Another nationwide campaign called ‘Think Ahead, Think Housing’ helps wheelchair users apply to their local authority to be “included in social housing planning and delivery for the future,” according to the IWA website.

People across the country can apply in order to make sure that they will be placed in social housing in the future if they need it.

“We’re a big family here,” said Ciaran about the IWA Lucan branch. “And the mural is a nice project.”