Dublin University Gender Equality Society (DUGES) held a candlelit vigil in Front Square this evening in memory of Emma Mhic Mhathúna, who died this week after a long battle with cervical cancer.
More than 20 students – including Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Shane De Rís – gathered on the steps of the Exam Hall, where Chair of DUGES Clara Tatlow-Devally spoke about Mhic Mhathúna’s life.
Mhic Mhathúna, a mother of five, was one of the women at the centre of the CervicalCheck crisis. She was one of 221 women who was found to have been provided with incorrect results during a clinical audit of past tests by the CervicalCheck screening programme.
Speaking to The University Times, Tatlow-Devally said: “We wanted to remember Emma, and we felt that it was our place as the feminist voice on campus to remember her and the other women affected and to remember that this is an issue that still hasn’t been resolved.”
Mhic Mhathúna received two incorrect smear results and said if she had been correctly diagnosed she would have survived. She settled her case against the HSE and US laboratory Quest Diagnostics in June for €7.5 million, after Quest admitted to misreading two cervical smear slides in 2010 and 2013, and the HSE admitted liability for not disclosing the findings of the CervicalCheck audit.
Mhic Mhathúna received a terminal diagnosis in May of this year. In a statement this week, her family said she died in the “knowledge that she had helped to shine a light on important issues which affected not just her own life, but the lives of many others”.
They added: “Emma’s unending and unwavering commitment to her children means that her abiding legacy will be that of a great mother. However, Emma will also be remembered as someone who fought for social justice in an exceptionally selfless way during times of great personal challenge.”
