An Irish CIL Emerges

In July 1992 the Independent Living Movement finally reached Ireland with the launch of the first Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Dublin.

Central to the development of the Independent Living Movement to Ireland was an American lady named Jana Overbo(Read a newspaper Article on Jana Overbo). In 1991, Jana arrived in Ireland, intending to have a nice holiday. However, she found to her dismay that access to public transport and public services was difficult for people with disabilities. Jana found within the disabled community a lot of people who were dissatisfied with this state of affairs, who had lots of great ideas, but who had no outlet to express themselves.

In an interview with Insight magazine in 1992, Jana stated: "There was a group of people with significant disabilities already working in Ireland even the year before I got here. Many of them had residential care backgrounds. They were saying that this is not just going to work anymore. They had waited long enough for change. They did not want to be passive and dependent any longer and wanted to create action. I did not begin anything but I just came in on the developments at the time."

Jana, who had gained considerable experience with the first CIL in Berkeley was invited by these people to help them with setting up Ireland's own Center for Independent Living. Martin Naughton was also a key player in instigating the movement in Ireland. The first programme "INCARE" of the Center for Independent Living was launched in late August of 1992.

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