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06 Sept 2025
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06 Sept 2025
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Autism advocate Cara Darmody with her mother Noelle
A 12-year-old Ardfinnan girl is to sit the Leaving Cert Maths exam next year to highlight the urgent need for better services for children with autism.
Cara Darmody, whose brothers Neil (9) and John (5) are both severely autistic, is a tireless worker in advocating for better services for autistic children nationally.
Cara sat the Junior Cycle Maths exam last June to raise much-needed funds for Ardfinnan National School and Scoil Chormaic Special school, raising almost €40,000.
“The pain and suffering that is being put onto families due to these long waiting lists must stop. It’s time for politicians to get some courage and finally stand up to the HSE. The HSE is a bully, a big, bad, ugly monster,” said Cara.
“We are just so proud of her. She has the energy and enthusiasm of ten children. It’s got to the stage where she has developed her own voice and she is using it to its maximum potential. The politicians need to wake up and realise that she is not going to go away,” said her mother Noelle.
Cara is now waiting patiently for her Junior Cycle Maths exam result, which she will receive on November 23.
That result will propel her forward to sit next year’s Leaving Certificate Maths exam while only in Sixth Class in Ardfinnan NS.
Cara also has the full backing of Asiam and Family Carers Ireland as part of her campaign.
Cara, who recently won the Local Hero award as part of Tipp FM’s 2022 Best of Tipp Awards, will meet the leader of the opposition Mary-Lou McDonald at Leinster House on November 9.
“We’ve got to make the opposition accountable too. Everyone says they will be leading the next Government. So, I’ll be heading up to that meeting with a long shopping list of things that I need to happen. Autistic children are being treated disgracefully and it’s time for all politicians to wake up and get in the game. I am not afraid of any of them because I am in the right,” insisted Cara.
Cara’s fundraiser has now gone live on GoFundMe and is called Cara’s Mount Everest Maths Challenge.
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