Survivors are for justice
Broadcaster Doireann Ní Bhrian said: “In those days when people generally did not question authority it was outrageous that the State withheld this basic information from women.
“There was no mention of Thalidomide in the Irish media until a newspaper article was published in August 1962 and, even then, the drug was not referred to by the brand names which would have been more familiar to Irish women.”
Injuries
In 1963, while parents still had no idea what had caused their children’s injuries, the Department of Health was secretly collecting data about all their children.
A subsequent report was never published and the doctor who collated the information was ordered not to reveal its contents to the media.
Finola Cassidy from Dublin said: “My mother might have taken two tablets, possibly on day 22 of the pregnancy, and that is when the arms are being developed.
“I was baptised on the delivery ward, but in the Ireland of the day, if you had a disabled child it was God’s will.
“Where Thalidomide wouldn’t have meant much to anybody, but it had 10 other trade names and when those became a little more known in the newspaper that’s when parents maybe realised, ‘oh my goodness, that’s the drug I took’.”
It was the 1970s before stories about the damage done by Thalidomide really hit the headlines.
The German state and Thalidomide manufacturer Grunenthal then realised they would have to pay compensation to those affected and an “expert” was sent to assess how Irish children had been damaged by the drug.
Ms Cassidy said: “There was very invasive, very difficult testing.
“They wanted proof that the mother had taken Thalidomide, but obviously a lot of people didn’t have this information.”
Two thirds of the 100 people who claimed to have been affected by Thalidomide
‘They failed us as children, they are still failing us as adults’