Infant Drug Trials in Ireland – “We Haven’t Gone Away”

[Andrew Brennan]

Just to remind the Government that we haven’t gone away; that the publication of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Report was not the end of the matter. That report is only the beginning.

You and your friends in the Catholic hierarchy treated us with contempt when we were children, using our small bodies as your slave labour, allowing our bodies to be used for the sexual perversions of the clergy and, if those weren’t bad enough, you also used our bodies to enrich yourselves and drug companies.

Children brought up in Irish care homes may unknowingly have been used as human guinea pigs in vaccine trials with the approval of the religious Orders and the Irish Government. Vaccinations were tested on the children throughout the 1960s – with the last known case in 1973. The kids were in care homes in Dublin and Cork and claim that neither their relatives nor guardians were consulted about the trials. A woman subjected to a controversial vaccine trial as a baby without her mother’s consent broke her silence last night to reveal her traumatic decades-long fight for justice. Mari Steed (50) was effectively used as a guinea pig during the ‘four-in-one’ vaccine trials carried out on her between December 1960 and October 1961 when she was between nine and 18 months old.

When I was with the nuns we were split into four groups and, depending what group you were in, you either got an injection, or a sugar cube, or a mug of some drink poured from a tall ceramic jug, or nothing. We all had patches sewn onto our clothes [shirts, trousers, hankies] denoting which group we were in. When I ‘graduated’ to a different Industrial School we were split into just two groups. One group received generic toothpaste and the other received Colgate. Same with the injections – sugar cubes or injections.

I can’t understand how useful all this testing of products or drug trials could have been, unless similar trials were also going on outside of the Institutions – on healthy children. How accurate were the results of these trials in anyway? All of the children, myself included, were already suffering from little food, little heat, hard work and generally in a lousy condition. It beggars belief that they would use the children in Ferryhouse in these trials. They knew in 1967 that the place was not fit for the purpose – which was the care of children. In the official language Ferryhouse was described as a ‘social malaise’ – that from a secret Department of Health report of the same year. That report was compiled after the death of a child – caused by the bad conditions and overcrowding in Ferryhouse.

How anyone thought we were fit subjects for product testing is almost beyond me. I say ‘almost’ because there is a possibility that we were regarded as expendable. Surely not!

[Rob Northall]

Thought you should all know that Andrew Posted this at

http://itsapoliticalworld.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/infant-drug-tria...

as part of the strategy to promote awareness!

[jack colleton]

will visit that link. i have posted about these trials for many years and other abuses.

[jack colleton]

just left message there which is awaiting moderation. to any other new people members this being here on this site is a really good place to be!  i find it very helpfull! just being here! and contributing! sometimes all i can do is click "i like"  or comment on a photo in the album! other days i feel power inside and it must be expressed!  as for compensation maybe the truth simply is no amount of money will ever truely compensate for child abuse or for a life destroyed by sick people with the complicity of the government of the day (central and local). the past creates the present and the present creates the future and this is not over yet ...

[jack colleton]

MUST ASSUME GOVERNMENT (OF THE DAY) APPROVED CHILD ABUSE. POLITICAL PARTYS SHOULD BE AND MUST BE HELD TO ACCOUNT. INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS / CHILDREN'S HOMES ARE NOT CLINICAL ENVIRONMENTS. THEY ARE NO PLACES TO SHOOT INNOCENT AND VULNERABLE AND DEFENCELESS CHILDREN WITH BAD STUFF. THE ATTITUDE BEING NOBODY CARES FOR THOSE CHILDREN (ANYWAY). NOT THEIR OWN FLESH AND BLOOD NOR SOCIETY AND CERTAINLY NOT THE GOVERNMENT (OF THE DAY)!  NOBODY WOULD MISS ANY OF THEM IF THEY ARE KILLED. WHERE ANY OF THE CHILDREN TESTED FOR REACTIONS?  LIKE MANY PEOPLE DOUBTLESS I NOTICED HANDICAPPED PEOPLE EVERYWHERE IN IRELAND. THE RESULTS OF CHILD ABUSE. CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN. MANY ALREADY DEAD. MANY HOSPITALIZED OR IMPRISONED. HIDDEN VICTIMS. PSYCHIATRISTS AND DOCTORS COMPLICIT IN THE COVERUP OF THESE CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN. CHILD ABUSE. FILES WRITTEN THAT THE VICTIMS NEVER SAW (A HATCHET JOB). FILES DISAPPEARED. FILES "LOST" OR "UNFOUND" (EVIDENCE).

[jack colleton]

a general bad attitude towards children in children's 'homes' at all levels of society from top to bottom .. from government to the street .. bad children to be punished .. to be used and to be abused .. i recall the injections and the sugar lumps and the arms that were sore and swollen with toxic waste coming out of them .. the 3 times we all fell after being deliberately injected with measles ans chicken pox and mumps .. that was child abuse .. that was assault .. no amount of denial changes what that was (nor the effects thereafter) .. no amount of records gone "missing" changes what that was (nor the effects thereafter)child abuse with the government's consent (implicated)