Shortly after the plaintiff, Jamie Sinnott, was born in 1977, doctors discovered he was severely autistic. For the next 22 years of his life, his mother attempted to provide her son with basic speech, language, and motor skills, as well as toilet-training. Unfortunately, she discovered that the few institutions for children with severely physically and mentally disabilities in Cork, Ireland did not meet the continuous education needs of her autistic child. In 1997, Mrs.