The History of Deaf People in Ireland: A Cruel Legacy
One in a thousand people are profoundly deaf from birth or early childhood. In the past, they were called ‘deaf and dumb’, a term that is now unacceptable to the modern deaf community which has British and Irish Sign Languages as its core identity. Until recently, educational policies advised hearing families not to sign, and oral methods of teaching were enforced at the residential schools in Belfast and Dublin.
