We walked the pier with our beloved dogs and so began his greatest legacy
Appeals board ignores the ‘dismissal’ recommendation but still penalises Corr for his ‘valuable public service’
‘AT the end of March, I realised I was having serious issues with my voice and the people around me could hear it too. They knew something was seriously wrong,’ said the text I got from Charlie Bird on October 21, 2021.
After one of our walks together, I too had noticed the change in his voice.
‘The problem persisted throughout the summer and I have been to the top neurologists in the country – they are fantastic. I have had every test under the sun, but we can’t come up with an answer. You can hear it in my voice. It’s bizarre,’ he told me in another text sometime later.
It was clear from our phone chats that Charlie’s speech had slowed and at times his words became slurred.
Several neurological conditions were ruled out, including Parkinson’s.
Then he told me that events had moved on. His medical consultant formally diagnosed him with Motor Neurone Disease (MND), and said the game was up.
He was unclear how long Charlie would survive. The one thing that made him Charlie Bird, his voice, would be the first thing to go.
How ironic.
His battle started at that moment. He wanted to hang on for as long aspossible.
A few days later, while admitting he was struggling and going downhill a bit, he rang and said ‘why don’t we go for a coffee in town or a walk on the pier with Tiger and Ted?’ The dogs are our much-loved cockapoos. Following his appearance on The Late Late Show on December 10, and the overwhelming response he received, he decided to fulfil a lifetime ambition to climbCroagh Patrick.
Charlie Bird knew how to load a question. ‘If I go ahead with the idea.’ he said, ‘I will need professional help to promote the climb… wait for it, will you be willing to help me?’
Within seconds I said yes, I was in. On December 15 we decided to start building a plan. One of the first things he wanted from me was my contacts book. We went through it alphabetically together. Everyone we called said yes.
Who says no to Charlie Bird?
All the major business people in Ireland wanted a photo, so they were prepared to donate heavily to the cause.
If I was to single anyone out, the people of Dunnes Stores would be top of the list for their kindness and generosity and their ability to raise lots of money which the company matched.
As the campaign was gathering momentum, one problem was the massive mail bag. Letters to ‘Charlie Bird, Wicklow’, or ‘Charlie Bird between Wicklow Town and Co. Dublin’, cascaded through the letterbox. With them were Rosary beads, medals, prayers and donations to the cause.
Then came choosing a date for Climb with Charlie and avoiding a clash with the Six Nations rugby tournament and other big sporting events. Little did I, or he, imagine it would become one of the biggest fundraising events ever in Ireland.
But then, nothing about Charlie Bird surprised me.
I’ve known him for most of my professional life. With his death all who knew him have been hit with a juggernaut of memories, laughter, and reflection. He was the bravest man I have known, he not only faced up to the terrible prospect looming over him, he embraced it. What a fighter.
When thinking of Charlie I can only think of positive stories and funny moments. Yet our first meeting was a bit rocky. I was the freshfaced kid in RTÉ, ‘station of the stars’ as we used to call it.
I had just parked my car in Montrose and as I was getting out, Charlie pulled in beside me and greeted me with: ‘This is my car space, has no one told you not to park the car there?’
Charlie would arrive to work in his raincoat – typical newshound attire. He would immediately get excited and start shouting about some major news event he had to attend. His presence alone generated excitement and then, with a great swish of his raincoat, he was gone. As a reporter he covered great events, at home and abroad, bringing the news into the homes of his audience in Ireland. But the one that made him the star reporter he was, and the story that haunted him until the day he died, was The Stardust Tragedy.
Charlie Bird has been a beacon of light for so many people down the years. His ability to deal with world events and dramatic domestic news has been inspiring.
He has been even more inspiring in the manner he dealt with MND His wife Claire was not alone his partner but his full-time carer. The daily challenges they faced, they faced together. During his illness he reached out the hand of friendship to so many people in dark places, offering support, comfort and understanding.
As I went through my phone and the messages between Charlie and myself there are lots of pictures, of our dogs.
A dog was not something he initially wanted in his life. His beloved Claire embarked on a fiveyear campaign for a puppy and eventually, Charlie gave in and Tiger arrived. The three of them were inseparable.
This makes this week, while difficult, a more memorable and bearable occasion. We are weeks away from another anniversary of Climb with Charlie on April 2, an event that raised a staggering €3.6m for good causes in Ireland.
While we celebrate Charlie’s life and mourn his passing, we must commit ourselves to continuing his legacy. The people at the Irish MND Association, Lillian McGovern and her team of wonderful nurses, the staff at the hospice, and the various carers are outstanding professionals. They do this daily, and we thank them.
One thing I would like to develop as a lasting legacy for him is ‘The Birdhouse’ which Charlie knew and spoke about at length. This project we discussed was where a property known as ‘The Birdhouse’ would be available for families to use for respite care when travelling across Ireland to be by the bedside of a loved one, newly diagnosed with MND.
There are heroes and there are legends. Heroes we will always remember but a legend lives on. Rest in peace Charlie, we all miss you.
‘There are heroes and legends. Legends live on’
A GOVERNMENT whistleblower who brought to light several scandals in the health system should not be fired for exposing the abuses, an appeals board found.
In recent years, Department of Health employee Shane Corr has exposed shocking financial behaviour within the health service and revealed significant State abuses of vulnerable citizens.
As a result of these disclosures, the Department of Health has been determined to sack Mr Corr.
It first informed Mr Corr of its intention to dismiss him the day after his protected disclosure to the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed the Government’s secret and cynical care-home strategy.
This revelation is one of many Mr Corr made public after he first tried to raise his concerns by means of an internal protected disclosure within the department, and it was stonewalled.
The department’s determination to sack Mr Corr persisted even as Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said Mr Corr’s disclosures ‘were in the public interest’ – and as Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe praised Mr Corr for providing ‘a valuable public service’.
But instead of welcoming Mr Corr’s disclosures and acting to address the failings he uncovered, the department, led by secretarygeneral Robert Watt, suspended him for ‘serious misconduct’.
Mr Corr was suspended on full pay in March 2022 after a disclosure to the Business Post.
Although he made prior disclosures to RTÉ in 2021 and went on to make subsequent disclosures to this newspaper in 2023, the Department of Health’s disciplinary process relates only to his disclosure to the Business Post in 2022.
It involved a recording of a Department of Health finance meeting in which ‘fake’ recruitment targets and other irregularities were discussed.
The department’s investigation found Mr Corr’s actions amounted to ‘serious misconduct’ and recommended his ‘dismissal’. But backed by his union Fórsa, Mr Corr appealed the dismissal to the Civil Service Appeals Board and has now won a reprieve.
Instead of being dismissed from the civil service, the board recommended Mr Corr be ‘debarred from competitions and promotions for a period of 24 months’.
It also recommended Mr Corr be ‘placed on a lower rate of remuneration; two points lower on the incremental scale’.
This recommendation, if accepted by the department, would see Mr Corr remain at Higher Executive Officer level, although he would lose approximately €3,000 from his €61,000 salary.
The ruling would also prevent Mr Corr, who has remained suspended on full pay for two years, from seeking a job elsewhere in the civil service for another two years.
However, the board’s decision is also a significant blow to the Department of Health’s attempts to sack the whistleblower.
Mr Corr last night said he stood by his actions.
He told the MoS: ‘Whistleblowers must be free to challenge poor practice, wrongdoing and irregularities at State bodies without fear of reprisals. Otherwise, we will continue to fail the public.’
Reacting to the board’s recommendation, Peter Behan, founder of the Whistleblowers Ireland support group, welcomed the recognition of Mr Corr’s actions as valid.
‘Only for whistleblowers, we wouldn’t know half of what goes on in this country. They have exposed wrongdoing right across different organisations and government departments,’ he said.
However, Mr Behan warned that the pay cut and demotion recommended by the board would dissuade others from coming forward.
‘I know there are other whistleblowers out there who are afraid to come forward. I’ve met some of them and it’s an extremely lonely place for them,’ Mr Behan said.
In the case of Mr Corr, the board found his ‘covert’ recording of a meeting ‘was a serious breach of trust which is serious misconduct under the Disciplinary Code’.
It also found Mr Corr’s ‘interruption of the meeting’ to record it on a personal device was a ‘breach of privacy and confidentiality guidelines’. In his defence, Mr Corr told the hearing he had tinnitus and recorded meetings so as to better take notes. He also claimed his superiors must have known he was recording.
This defence was rejected, and it is for these privacy breaches that Mr Corr has been disciplined – not for his disclosure of the contents of the recording.
Instead, the board threw out the Department of Health’s contention that Mr Corr’s disclosure was not valid under Section 10 of the Protected Disclosures Act.
Under Section 10, a civil servant can make a valid disclosure to a third party, such as a news organisation, if their own management does not act to address the issue.
The question of whether or not a disclosure to a journalist is deemed a Section 10 disclosure is vital for whistleblowers because valid disclosures are protected by law.
In this way, those who make valid disclosures to the media can still avail of the financial compensation available to those punished for being a whistleblower.
In the appeals hearing, the department tried to assert that Mr Corr’s disclosure was not a valid Section 10 disclosure.
But the board disregarded this, saying it was satisfied Mr Corr’s disclosure could be deemed valid.
Consequently, the board found
‘We must be free to challenge poor practice’
that the ‘department’s decision to recommend the dismissal’ of Mr Corr was ‘disproportionate’. The department also tried to argue that Mr Corr’s disclosure should be deemed invalid because it related to financial matters at the HSE – rather than his own employer, the Department of Health.
But the board ruled against this, saying that anything that comes to someone’s attention during their work can be a valid disclosure.
The board’s rejection of the department’s bid to dismiss Mr Corr and have his disclosure invalidated will be watched closely by other whistleblowers, especially in the health service. It also places a renewed spotlight on the behaviour of the department and of Mr Watt, its powerful secretary-general.
Mr Watt is the subject of a preliminary inquiry by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) following a complaint from Mr Corr. Mr Watt has said he is co-operating with the inquiry.
Mr Corr’s complaint to SIPO relates to attempts by the secretarygeneral to stop RTÉ and the Business Post from publishing the disclosures of Mr Corr.
In 2021, this bid to stymie Mr Corr’s whistleblowing resulted in Mr Watt calling the then RTÉ director general, Dee Forbes, to say the Official Secrets Act had been broken by Mr Corr.
Ignoring the threat, RTÉ doubled down and the Prime Time programme ran Mr Corr’s disclosure showing how the State had secretly compiled war-chest dossiers on the families of autistic children taking legal action to secure their rights.
As a direct result of Mr Corr’s whistleblowing to RTÉ, the Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon, later fined the Department of Health €22,500, reprimanded it for its behaviour, and banned it from collecting excessive sensitive information.
After trying to stop RTÉ in 2021, Mr Watt tried to apply similar pressure on the Business Post the following year.
Mr Watt told the newspaper that Mr Corr could have doctored audio recordings and that he had broken into online meetings to record them.
According to Mr Corr’s complaint to SIPO, Mr Watt’s claims are ‘false and baseless’ and ‘incorrectly suggest criminality’.
Mr Corr’s complaint added that such claims ‘fall far below standards demanded by Sipo and the public’ of the ‘highest-paid civil servant in the State’.
Mr Watt’s claims are ‘false’ and ‘baseless’