{"id":554458,"date":"2026-07-17T13:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/554458\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T13:43:11","slug":"cars-block-family-from-new-accessible-lisfannon-beach-boardwalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/554458\/","title":{"rendered":"Cars block family from new accessible Lisfannon Beach boardwalk"},"content":{"rendered":"

A family who attempted to use the new accessibility boardwalk at Lisfannon Beach this week could not do so due to parked cars blocking the entrance.<\/p>\n

Aaron Daly, who is originally from Lisfannon and now lives in D\u00fan Laoghaire, was visiting home with his daughter Sophia (20),\u00a0who was born with cerebral palsy and is a wheelchair user.<\/p>\n

They were excited to use the new boardwalk, which was officially opened last month by Donegal County Council and for Sophia to enjoy the beach. <\/p>\n

However, Aaron, who is also an advocate for Changing Places Ireland, told Donegal Daily how they were disappointed to find the entrance blocked by cars.<\/p>\n

“I grew up in Lisfannon and my mum still lives there. We come up a few times every year.<\/p>\n

“As Sophia gets older, it has gotten harder to find things in Inishowen that are disability friendly.<\/p>\n

“Through my work with Changing Places, I was actually invited to the opening of the boardwalk, but, sadly, couldn’t make it. <\/p>\n

“So, we were looking forward to going down there to see and use it. The pictures of it looked great<\/p>\n

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“But, then we got there. First of all, we couldn’t get parked near the beach, as it was so busy, <\/p>\n

“Then, when we eventually did, we couldn’t get on to the boardwalk as there were cars parked tightly in front of it.”<\/p>\n

The family tried again the following day, only to meet the same situation.<\/p>\n

They eventually managed to access it on Wednesday evening, when the beach was somewhat quieter.<\/p>\n

Aaron added: “It is great, but it’s only about 30ft long, so you can’t go too far on to the beach. It would be nice to be able to go further in to the sand.”<\/p>\n

Aaron suggested that a ‘no parking’ sign or disability parking spaces be erected near the boardwalk entrance.<\/p>\n

He also outlined how the lack of Changing Places toilets in Inishowen and across Donegal has continued to impact where they visit.<\/p>\n

Accessible Changing Places toilets have adequate facilities and space for use by people with a range of disabilities, who may require assistance.<\/p>\n

“If there isn’t a toilet Sophia can use, we would have to change her in the back of the van.<\/p>\n

“What we normally do now is spend time in Derry, as they have quite a lot of Changing Places toilets.<\/p>\n

“We’d really like to be able to visit more around Inishowen and Donegal, without having to worry about where we’ll find a toilet.”<\/p>\n

Aaron welcomed the opening of accessible toilets and a Changing Places facility in Letterkenny and said it would be very positive to see more like this opening across the county.<\/p>\n

Donegal Daily has contacted Donegal County Council for a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A family who attempted to use the new accessibility boardwalk at Lisfannon Beach this week could not do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-554458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}