{"id":19661,"date":"2025-08-24T05:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T05:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/19661\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T05:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T05:24:11","slug":"hundreds-gather-in-dublin-to-remember-harvey-morrison-sherratt-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/19661\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds gather in Dublin to remember Harvey Morrison Sherratt \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people gathered in Dublin city centre on Saturday to remember nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt<\/a> who died last month after waiting years for spinal surgery.<\/p>\n

Protesters demanded an end to the suffering of children left on waiting lists for years before accessing life-changing and life-saving treatments.<\/p>\n

There were repeated calls from speakers for the Fine Gael leader Simon Harris<\/a> to be held accountable for promises he made in 2017 that no child would be left waiting more than four months for the surgery Harvey waited almost three years for. <\/p>\n

Children\u2019s Health Ireland <\/a>(CHI) also came in for criticism for systemic and repeated failings. There were calls for it to be dismantled and replaced. <\/p>\n

Harvey was non-verbal and born with complex health conditions including spina bifida and scoliosis. He spent almost three years on waiting lists for life-changing spinal surgery.<\/p>\n

He had his operation last December but died on July 29th after taking a turn.<\/p>\n

Honouring the wishes of the child\u2019s family, there were no political banners at the march, which began at the Garden of Remembrance before making its way down O\u2019Connell Street and to the Custom House where speakers included Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Mary Lou MacDonald<\/a>, People Before Profit\u2019s Paul Murphy<\/a> and the leader of Aont\u00fa, Peadar Tobin<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Marchers carried signs and wore T-shirts calling for \u201cJustice for Harvey\u201d. <\/p>\n

The rally was called by Access for All Ireland to highlight years of prolonged waiting lists for children with complex health issues, including scoliosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need compassion and we need people to listen,\u201d organiser Bernard Mulvany told the gathering. \u201cI do not believe the people don\u2019t care but somewhere along the way someone has allowed our children to be forgotten.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Father of Harvey Morrison Sherratt says his son was \u2018abandoned\u2019 by disability servicesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Rachel Martin of Families United for Services and Support (Fuss) said the protest was taking place because \u201ca young life was lost. [Harvey] should still be here. What happened wasn\u2019t inevitable.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said he had been \u201cleft waiting for care and waiting for compassion, compassion that we should never have to beg for. And sadly Harvey was not alone.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said it was not a \u201ca crisis in healthcare [but] a human rights emergency\u201d. She said: \u201cHarvey\u2019s name will not be forgotten, we will speak his name in grief and we will speak his name in love and we will speak his name in defiance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"StephenStephen Morrison and Gillian Sherratt, Harvey’s parents. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni \"HundredsHundreds attended the Justice for Harvey march in Dublin. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni <\/p>\n

Mr Murphy of PFP paid tribute to Harvey\u2019s parents Stephen Morrison and Gillian Sherratt and said their fight for justice during his short life and in the days after his death was inspiring.<\/p>\n

He said Fine Gael leader Simon Harris \u201cwill never get away\u201d with what he said in 2017: that waiting lists would be cut to four months for children needing scoliosis surgery. Mr Harris was health minister at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe should resign,\u201d Mr Murphy said to loud applause. <\/p>\n

He also said it was not just about one individual but systemic failings over many years. <\/p>\n

Mr Tobin highlighted the \u201cmismanagement of the health service\u201d and said \u201cChildren\u2019s Health Ireland is sinking in dysfunction\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it should be closed down and the management sent packing.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"ProtestersProtesters at Saturday’s demonstration. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni <\/p>\n

Ms MacDonald said the death of Harvey represented a \u201ctipping point\u201d and stressed that when the D\u00e1il resumes next month \u201cHarvey\u2019s name will be heard\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said her party would \u201cmove to hold Simon Harris accountable [as well as] the Government for their callous disregard for Harvey\u201d. <\/p>\n

She told the gathering \u2013 which included many young people in wheelchairs and their parents \u2013 that \u201cyou are heard and you will be heard and that is our pledge to you\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Family of recently deceased boy Harvey Morrison Sherratt to meet Simon HarrisOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters after the event she expressed horror that children could still be made to suffer on long waiting lists \u201cin a wealthy society, in a first-world society\u201d and called for a \u201csubstantive radical shift\u201d in how children are treated in the public health system. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve raised these issues very consistently and there is a need for accountability,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that Simon Harris needs to be accountable for his absolute failure to meet a commitment made as far back as 2017 that children would not be left in chronic pain to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of people gathered in Dublin city centre on Saturday to remember nine-year-old Harvey Morrison Sherratt who died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,45,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,44,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-19661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-children-s-health-ireland-chi","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-simon-harris","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}