Emma Mhic Mhathúna to be remembered one year on from her passing
Emma Mhic Mhathúna, whose ferocious courage, dedication to her children, and humour in the face of tragedy endeared her to a nation, will be honoured this weekend on the first anniversary of her death.
Today, her former husband, Cathal Mac Mathúna, will walk with their three sons — James, 13, Mario, 11, and Donnchadh, 4, — to Ballydavid Pier on the Dingle Peninsula at 3pm where they will place flowers in her memory.
This will follow private prayers and a blessing in their home in Ballydavid.
Mr Mac Mathúna is expected to say a few words in Emma’s memory. On his Facebook page, he wrote: “It’s almost a year since we lost Emma, my children and I will be having a small service at our home in Ballydavid on Saturday and then walking down to the pier at 3pm to say a few words, all friends welcome.”
Emma, a 37-year-old mother-of-five, died on October 7, 2018.
She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016, having received incorrect smear test results from CervicalCheck, the national screening programme, on two separate occasions. She had sued the HSE and US laboratory Quest Diagnostics Incorporated and was awarded €7.5m in June 2018.
Emma came to national prominence after she explained live on air on May 10, 2018, how she was one of more than 220 women affected by the CervicalCheck controversy. She walked into her local Raidió na Gaeltachta studio in west Kerry and explained in an interview on An Saol ó Dheas, that she had had smear tests every three years since the birth of her daughter Natasha, then 15, and that all
results had come back as normal until 2016.
In September 2016, she was told to go for a biopsy and was told “straight out there and then” by the doctor that he didn’t need to wait to get the test results back, that she had cancer.
She broke the nation’s heart when she recounted how her oldest son, Séamus (James) was due to make his confirmation and she had asked if his younger brother Mario, could make his at the same time, because “everything is up in the air now”. Emma is also survived by her son Oisín, 7.
Emma told how she was stunned when her doctor called in April 2018 to tell her she was one of the women caught up in the CervicalCheck controversy.
Emma died on October 7, 2018.
An Irish Times obituary says her request that the hearse pass by Government Buildings was not an act of blame, but a reminder of the changes that needed to be made.
