Here.

And here.

And yet again, here.

I could go on. Three examples of previous Undaunted columns highlighting issues of care of people with intellectual disabilities, all from 2013.

In my life before Newstalk, I did some work with advocacy groups for people with ‘mild’ intellectual disabilities. They are no longer forced to live in large residential units. Time moved on and they now are housed ‘in the community’. They could be next door to you or in a house on your street.

Even then, I heard stories of adults being forced into wearing pyjamas as soon as 5pm arrived. The dignity of opening a letter was often taken from them as staff intercepted post before people had the chance to open it.

Back in the 90s, I had the dubious pleasure of being the Irish representative on a European disability movement group on the issues faced by people with complex needs. There was an attempt - and an endless debate - to insert ‘dependency’ in there, as well. Thankfully it failed. We identified them as people with needs and these needs could be complex. Adding the word 'dependency' would further isolate them and mark them as patients rather than people.

I know the territory. I thought I had seen everything and nothing could shock me.

How wrong I was.

Mary, Mary and Ivy. Three women. Three adults.

That is the first thing we need to remember. The women we saw being tortured in Áras Attracta are adults.

The women thrown about like rag-dolls and sat on by a manager are adults.

Adults who were mocked and ignored for wanting to use the toilet.

They are adults with feelings.

They are adults.

It is obvious that this fact was lost on that other set of adults who collected cheques at the end of every month. That set of adults obviously thought Mary, Mary and Ivy were happy to sit in the same position for six hours. They obviously thought that the three women were happy to urinate on themselves.

They were wrong. The screams they interpreted as getting in the way of their coffee breaks or catching up with Dr Phil (ah, the irony) were actually human beings asking fellow human beings for the hand of friendship.

Those three women just wanted a smile. A friendly word. A hug.

Those three women wanted to be seen as human beings. Was that too much to ask?