Dalradian wanting this road abandoned because they claim “no one used it in the past” says more about how little they understand this area than anything else. People here know these roads because generations of families lived around them, walked them, worked them, brought cattle along them and visited neighbours along them long before any […]
The Roads They Said Nobody Used
When a Wheelchair User Boarding a Flight Becomes Fatal
There are moments that cut through everything. All the policies. All the promises. All the carefully crafted language about accessibility and inclusion. And what’s left is the truth of how disabled people are treated when it actually matters. A 24-year-old man, Hunter Adkins, died after falling from an aisle wheelchair while boarding a flight with […]
35 Years Ago: The Surgery That Shaped My Fight
Monday 25th March 1991. Thirty-five years ago, my life changed. I had major spinal surgery in the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore. At that age, I didn’t fully understand the scale of it, but I understood enough to know this wasn’t routine. My neck was unstable because of Morquio. One bad fall, one knock, […]
Not Half a Person: Reflections on Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day can feel like a strange one when you’re single, especially as a disabled person. So much of what we see today is built around the idea that love looks one specific way. Fancy dinners. Big gestures. Perfect couples in perfect places. But for many disabled people, life doesn’t always fit into that neat […]
Why Rail Travel Is Essential for My Independence as a Disabled Person
For me the case for reopening rail links between Derry, Omagh, Belfast and Dublin is first and foremost about rail travel itself, what it uniquely provides, and why no other mode of transport has ever replaced it for disabled people. I’ve said it many times: when buses and taxis fail, rail delivers. That’s because rail […]
Dermot Devlin: A Review of 2025
Turning Presence into Pressure and Learning When to Pause 2025 was not a quiet year. It was a year of speaking, protesting, challenging power, and refusing to stay silent — but it was also a year that tested my limits. From conference halls in Dublin to the streets of London and Belfast, from Westminster corridors […]
PRESS RELEASE: Protest Against Disability Benefit Cuts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE On Wednesday 26th March Disabled People Against Cuts, Deaf and Disabled benefit claimants from across the country will descend on London as part of National Action to demand “Welfare Not Warfare” in protest against the Spring Statement and proposed £5bn cut to welfare spending outlined by the Department for Work and Pensions in their Green Paper ‘Pathways […]
NICE Aren't Playing Nice With Chronic Pain
People suffering from chronic pain that has no known cause should not be prescribed painkillers, the medicines watchdog has announced, recommending such patients be offered exercise, talking therapies and acupuncture instead. This was the opening paragraph in today’s Guardian article Chronic pain sufferers should take exercise, not analgesics, says Nice. The National Institute for Health Care […]
Thursday Truths: 30 Years On And Still Going Strong
Monday 25th March 1991 I had a major surgery on my spine at Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, Middlesex, England. Today marks the 30th year anniversary of the crucial event in my life and I cannot believe where the time has disappeared to. On one hand, it feels like it was yesterday and on […]
Thursday Truths - Targeted: The Truth about Disability Hate Crime
This evening I watched Targeted: The Truth about Disability Hate Crime on the BBC. Congratulations to everyone who took part in this programme and shared their harrowing stories, including my friend Terry McCorry from Leonard Cheshire in Northern Ireland. Watch here: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rh4p Every disabled person has their own stories about being the victim of a hate […]