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HERE IS THE note that the mother of a disabled child found on her car after bringing her son to lunch.
Siobhan Quigley, whose three-year-old son Robert has cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis, had travelled up to Dublin from Mayo to attend an occupational therapy session for her child.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Ryan Tubridy Show this morning, Siobhan said of her son, “To us day to day, he is a three-year-old with a monkey that you have to keep your eye on. He is full of devilment and fun.”
Parking her car in Carrickmines in the south of Dublin, she and her husband took Robert to a café that they are regulars in due to its accessibility.
Upon returning, her husband discovered the note under the windscreen wiper of her car. He was initially reluctant to show it to Siobhan due to its upsetting content.
The note read:
Having a child does not entitle you to use a disabled parking bay. Consider those less able. I have photographed the disabled badge and reporting your fraudulent use of same to garda.
Speaking about the disabled badge, Siobhan said, “Robert has been medically assessed for a disability badge and has received a disability badge. So we use the spaces when he is in the car with us. Mainly to take him in and out of the car.”
Siobhan said that she felt the note was an attack, and that it would have been much better if the person who left the note had approached her and asked her about her son’s condition rather than making an assumption.
“If they had had the gumption to come up to us and say, ‘actually, what are you doing?’, you know I would have been happy to have a conversation with them and explain the situation. We don’t hide Robert’s disability,” she said.
She hoped that by appearing on the programme she might stop the person acting the same way in future.
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I once left a note on the car beside me that read “you park like Stevie Wonder”
When I came back to my car a note was placed on my car saying “I just called to say… Fcuk you”
I laughed in fairness.
idiots will always be stupid
Some people are just pr1cks
If the person had any decency they would find a way to apologise. But I doubt it.
This brave person had no proof the badge was fake. Why assume that? If, and I mean if, that person does go to the Gardaí with that photo, they should be charged with wasting official time.
I have a well earned disability badge but I am appalled at seeing these badges abused. Being fat and stupid is not a disability and Siobhan has more right to one for her little boy than the one who left the note on her car has from the sound of it. The misuse of the special spaces is a sad reflection on our society but there is no need for abusive behaviour like this, if some idiot is seen to be regularly misusing a badge issued to a family member while the driver is fit and healthy and alone in the car then reporting is a course of action. The old saying ” adding insult to injury” comes to mind. I had to stop while reversing out of one space as stuff fell over and a tw@t trying to get in shouted all sorts at me while folks looked on but they realised what a fool he was when I offered to park my walking stick and badge where the sun don’t shine if he did not shut up.
We’ve become an arrogant bunch of ego trippers in our motorised vehicles.
Without our ‘motorised vehicles’ many of us would not be tripping anywhere .
Well actually it’s good that people are taking action against those who could abuse the system – just a pity they were wrong on this instance. So good intent but poor execution.
I’m 52 and cycle everywhere. Yesterday I passed the police van at 34 m.p.h. because I was in a rush to create a hurry!! Everyone I know my age is Eff See You Cead and I have to wonder about their lifestyle choices!!
Bully for you……, arnt you great for your age!
I think the use of wheelchair symbol leads a lot of people to think that if the person is not wheelchair bound, they aren’t entitled to use the space. If the person has a disabled parking sign on their car they shouldn’t have to justify themselves to anyone.
I agree! The wheelchair symbol simply is misleading especially as there are so many of us with an invisible disability out there. Many are aware of this fact but there are simply so many ignorant people out there so in my opinion a different symbol should be used to represent ‘disability’.
I totally agree but the article doesnt say they had the badge displayed. Just having the badge is not enough you must display it…. My mother has one and it annoys the crap out of me when you go into places and people are parked in these spaces without the badge displayed
The badge was displayed, the person just assumed it was fraudulent. I agree many people have an invisible disability, the wheelchair sign is very misleading to people. But no one has a right to question anyone’s disability.
Some people just need to learn to mind their own fooking business
The flip side of this is the thoughtless, pig ignorant people who do use disabled parking and are not supposed to. Sickens me.
That’s it in a nutshell Leo. Some pig ignorant lazy ******ds seem to think lazyness and ignorance is a disability.
It also implies that there are plenty of fake disability badges out there, if this is true what’s being done about it?
Many years ago a friend of mine was visiting the local hospital for some treatment, being wheelchair bound she was appalled to discover the few parking spaces were taken by cars with no badges on display. So she blocked some of them. She parked behind them, went for her treatment, had a cup off coffee, visited friends etc.
During the hours she was there one of the drivers she had blocked in had her registration plated called out over the hospital tannoy, he was livid. Eventually she rolled out, at this point there was a few spectators, as much to see his reaction and to protect her… or him. When he saw her rolling towards him he was apoplectic, it didn’t sink in what he’d done, he immediately asked if it was her car. Those were his last words, she destroyed him. Even an idiot like that can’t win with a very confident lady in wheel chair who knows she’s right, he ended up like a jabbering fool and kept apologising. Anyone there that day will remember it, she was some lady.
They deserve to be keyed. I’d rather park on a double yellow than take up a disabled space, regardless of how many of the spaces are empty.
There is a campain in Bulgaria at the moment – you can get stickers with “I wish I was disabled” and stick them to the windscreen of cars without a badge that are parked in disabled places. Very hard to remove, as well.
This is pretty annoying. This note was probably left by another holder of a disabled parking badge who was annoyed they couldn’t use the space. My friend who looks like a healthy young man but is actually far from it has a badge and was walking away after parking his car when this old guy got out of his car and started shouting into his face. He kept telling him to get out of the space and let him in. My friend just tried to keep walking but this guy was shouting down the street at Him. A Garda came on the scene and asked my friend what was happening. My friend told him his had a badge but that guy wanted him out of the space. Garda did the old guy for blocking the whole road with his car and my friend went off to his appointment. Some people want to see you minus a leg toting a canister of oxygen when they see you using a disabled space.
Proper order.
In fairness I regularly see people without disabled badges parking in disabled spaces. Also, double parking on roads, parking in cycle lanes, parking in front of access gates, parking with the arse of the car sticking out on the road, parking over two parking spaces.
Or just general parking like complete a$$holes.
@stopit ah stop most people do it. yes laziness but it’s not top drawer criminality. disabled zones different matter . NO NO
John Terry for one. Caught on a number if occasions. All the money in the world, but zero class.
Those of us who are disabled get lifts all the time from people who don’t have disabled badges. Should we have to plank a badge on every car we get into just to prove we’re honest, or how about this: Everbpfy stop assuming the worst of everybody and acting like you’re able to make a medical assessment by looking at somebody for a second.
That’s what you get it for Neal. Once the owner of the badge is in the vehicle, it is entitled to display the badge.
I have a Blue badge but if I can get near enough to where I want to go I will park in a non disabled spot to leave the space for someone who might need it more than me and it is galling to come out and see a car with no blue badge parked in the spot. I might add that the BMW/Range Rover brigade are by far the biggest offenders.
Just goes to show, how wrong our judgements can be.
The note writer got in wrong but at the same time at least they spoke out. So many a-holes parking wrongfully in these spaces these days.. Most people ignore it.
They didn’t speak out. They obviously saw the woman with her child but didn’t have the balls to confront her directly. Instead they assumed she was misusing the disabled bag, waited, like a coward, for her to be out of sight before writing a petty note and taking a picture of the badge.
Passive aggressive douchebaggery at its lowest.
jumping to conclusions springs to mind! apology is all that’s needed
Stay classy Carrickmines
3rd last paragraph – “it would of been much better”
Didn’t take them long to change that.
Her and her husband took Robert…
There are few things in this world that annoy me as much as the incorrect use of the word’of’.
Do ye get out much lads?
Misunderstanding……
I’m sure the person offended by what they perceived as misuse of a wheelchair space had no idea of the situation and was actually defending the space for use by eligible people such as this lady and her son.
The person who left the note deserves a good kick up the backside and a warning from the Gardai not to waste their and other people’s time.
Talk about a mountain out of a molehill. There are plenty of tw@ts around. If you get a note like this and I’ve had a few, just brush it off. Don’t go crying to Ryan Tubridy about it. It’s clearly a misunderstanding and who knows maybe the author of the note had something awful happen to them too?
the other side to this , is that the person is going to look w right plonker when the gardai tell him/her that it’s for the the little boy who was there with his parents .
The Gardai won’t tell her that because it’s confidential information.
The coward who wrote that note won’t go next or near a Garda station to make a complaint!
Feel bad for her but I know for one she would be annoyed if somebody had done a fraudulent deed and took a spot she needed… maybe the person who wrote it assumed she was doing this and really was annoyed. And she needed the spot. ..
I’m sure if the person got to explain… All would be right
It seems to me people are quick to judge. Recently I was picking up a passenger near harcourt luas. Parked car fully on footpath and waited for passenger. Garda on bike approached, lectured me and started writing ticket. When I told him to look behind him, as my wheelchair passenger rolled towards me, I thought his head was going to explode with embarrassment. People just don’t think anymore! Sad!!
Regardless of who you were picking up, you deem it acceptable to park your car fully on a FOOTpath and cause an obstruction for others using it? Sad indeed Fred.
Fred since when is it ok to park on a footpath? What about the pedestrians?
Ah, in fairness, not everyone can think of every eventuality in every case. I would absolutely not fault the Garda here. Sure the reason why he was writing you a ticket was because people parking like that obstruct the path for wheelchair users/buggies. It would be “sad” if he had continued to give you a ticket. It is worse, in my opinion, that you didn’t relieve his embarrassment.
As a vision impaired pedestrian I could argue that you are a danger to me when you stop on the footpath like that, but of course I don’t dare do that because your disabled passenger looks more disabled than I do to the untrained and judgemental observer. (And also because I’m not mean enough to hold that against you, but you see my point)
Was about to comment the same, completely illegal to park on a footpath
If there is a blue badge in a car window, in a disabled place, then it’s nobody’s business who the person with the disability is. A stringent application process has been passed and the badge granted. That Nosy Parker deserves a good kick up the rear.
Seen a less abled person park diagonally across two disabled parking spots yesterday outside woodies in glasnevin, I mentioned it to the person in question and was promptly told to f**k off. I asked him did he want ketchup for the huge chip on his shoulder…..he didn’t.
There are wonderful signs above the disabled parking spots at my local supermarket. They say: “I’ll give you my spot if you’ll take my disabilty”
This is news how exactly?
You were forced to read it?
Good man Norman, such a spa…
Ah mummy left her phone down again.
At least it was fairly polite!
Next time you are up in Tesco Artane , hang around the disabled parking spots to see just who is using them, most stereotypes you can think of will be fulfilled right there over a period of 15min
No thanks, have much better things to be doing with my time
Have people nothing better to do with themselves? I’m addressing both parties here.
The gardai no doubt have her details, and she should be fined for excessive use of a large intruding nose!!
Wait now……he’s got a monkey??
I will never report a suspected case of fraud or wrongful doing having read peoples comments here. People should be encouraged to report suspected crimes. if it turns out the accused done nothing wrong then this will come to light when it is investigated, which in the above case, would of taken a very short period of time.
The person who wrote that note should come visit my local Tesco car park. Then they’d be busy writing notes I can tell you.
Every time I go to Tesco, I see all of the 20 or so disabled car parking spaces in use & I always expect to walk into the store & find lots of wheelchair users or disabled people… but it never happens. How strange
The extra level of vigilance can be put down to the abuse of disabled parking spots and the over use by many Africans.
Three-year-old son… 365 days in a year > 3+3+6+5 = 17
(That is just the tip of the iceberg)
He was born in a leap year.
The acid test to this story is the numerical vlaue of the note displayed.
Simple English 1064 > 1+0+6+4 = 11 Hebrew = 8041 > 8+0+4+1 = 13
You will also trip over the number “11″ encoded in the personal names
Siobhan Quigley = 164> 1+6+4 > Simple English..also 911> 9+1+1 Hebrew gematria.
Pronnsias,
Well done. You’ve discovered that if you add up some numbers you can get other numbers.
He’s just warming up for the scrabble world championship.
He should try Countdown.
Just ignore it. Why let a total ass.ole ruin your day.
The police should do this
i would do it myself but may end up in court wwith Joan Burton breathing down me neck!
Typically real life trolling. Shocking behaviour. …………..next we’ll have people leaving anonymous messages on news forums!
The scribbles of a troll wud Ye bother reading it sensitive people are wat keep trolls alive
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