Tipperary leads tributes to Ruth Morrissey

TRIBUTES have been paid in County Tipperary to Ruth Morrissey, one of the most prominent women involved in highlighting Ireland's CervicalCheck scandal.

Ms Morrissey (39), who last year sued the HSE and two laboratories over the misreading of her cervical smear test results, died on Sunday last at Milford Hospital in Limerick.
Her husband Paul said the State did not apologise to her for the "magnitude of harm" caused by the misreading of her smear test and "now it is too late" to do so.
Leading the tributes to Ms Morrissey in Tipperary, Labour Party Leader Alan Kelly said she took on the State and shouldered a huge burden for the women of Ireland.
"She fought the State not once, but twice. I spoke about her case many times in Dáil Éireann. The State promised no woman would have to go through the courts again. They didn’t honour that," said Mr Kelly.
He said the State then appealed the High Court decision in Ms Morrissey's case to the Supreme Court. Recalling attending that case with another prominent CervicalCheck campaigner, Vicky Phelan, Mr Kelly recalled how Ms Morrissey won her case again in the higher court.
"She was an incredible fighter and determined to make sure no woman went through what she did ever again." Mr Kelly extended his condolences to Ms Morrissey's husband Paul, her daughter Libby and her family. Ms Morrissey's Cashel-based solicitor Cian O’Carroll said the love between her and Paul was clear to see.
"It’s devastating – there’s a love affair that’s been going on between Paul and Ruth since they were teenagers," he told Tipp FM. "You couldn’t be in their presence but see it, the tenderness the constant attention to one another.
"They built their lives around each another and their beautiful daughter Libby who is going to be 9," Mr O’ Carroll recalled.
The Supreme Court last week heard that Ms Morrissey and her husband had been paid the full sum of €2.16 million damages awarded to them by the High Court.
Mr O' Carroll, in a statement issued on behalf of Ms Morrissey’s husband, said that "despite her time left being so short", she "showed courage and determination throughout that 36 day marathon trial" in the High Court.
"She persevered and won her case proving that the State was responsible for the running of CervicalCheck and responsible for its failings just as their labs were," the statement said.
"Despite the magnitude of the harm caused to her by avoidable errors, despite the broken promise of a Taoiseach who said no other woman would have to go to trial, despite using Ruth as a test case through the final years and months of her life, neither the HSE nor the State has ever apologised to her, and now it is too late."
Mr Morrissey said his wife’s life was a "very happy one and none of the hardships of recent years robbed her of her good cheer and positive spirit".
"She fought fiercely to stay alive for the family she adored. The example she set stands as an enduring inspiration of strength and determination that should help many others through difficult times in the future," he added.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar extended his sympathy to Ms Morrissey’s family. He said that last October, while he was Taoiseach, he gave a formal State apology to the women and families affected by the scandal.