Suspension of

inquiry into child sex

abuse case sparks
concern
By Andrew Carey -
February 21, 2019

Limerick Fianna Fail TD Niall Collins

A SPECIAL inquiry into the handling of one of the
biggest paedophile investigations in the history of
the State, will now not go ahead.
Children and Youth Affairs Minister Katherine
Zappone has told Limerick Fianna Fáil TD Niall
Collins that she has been advised to postpone the
inquiry which was to have been carried out by
Special Rapporteur on Child Protection Dr Geoffrey
Shannon.
Deputy Collins said that suspending the review “will be a cause for
concern”.

Minister Zappone commissioned the review on March 28, 2018 after

11 people were arrested during a Garda inquiry into the alleged
sexual abuse and exploitation of 16 children in the Mid West.

The arrests were made after up to 20 alleged victims made

complaints over an eight-month period.

The review was to look at the State’s handling of the case and the
agencies involved after details of the alleged abuse first
emerged more than 12 months ago.

Six women and five men, ranging in age from 20 to 70, were
arrested and questioned but later released without charge.

The children at the centre of the alleged abuse and exploitation are
subject of court imposed care orders.

Deputy Collins told the Limerick Post that “although it’s

understandable in view of the fact that criminal proceedings are in
progress, the suspension of Dr Shannon’s investigation into the
handling of this case by Tusla will be a cause of public concern.”

While there is no evidence of any mishandling of the case by either

Tusla or the Gardaí, the inquiry was intended to be a short, focused
independent “serious incident” review of the actions taken in
respect of the children involved and those suspected of the crimes.

Dr Shannon had been teamed with child welfare consultant Suzanne

Phelan and Garda chief superintendent Padraig Kennedy to carry out
the review after Minister Zappone and Justice Minister Charlie
Flanagan agreed its terms of reference.

Deputy Collins said that “people have a right to know if the State,
through its child protection services, failed these vulnerable children
over many years.

“The only way to ensure we get the truth is to resume the inquiry
when the criminal proceedings have concluded,” Deputy Collins
said.

Minister Zappone said that “matters may be revisited at a later date

to determine if further action is warranted and, if so, the form that
such action might take.”

https://www.limerickpost.ie/2019/02/21/suspension-of-inquiry-into-child-
sex-abuse-case-sparks-concern/?fbclid=IwAR0c-
USn7hPY9S5haE8acAt8xH23Qo30MzGL0dlL-rPLC7i0udjh7E3AXjA
Questioning of 12 as part of probe into what
may be country's largest ever paedophile ring
extended

Robin Schiller and Shane Phelan

October 3 2018
Gardaí were last night continuing to question a dozen people arrested as part
of an investigation into what is feared to be the largest paedophile ring the
country has ever seen.
The 12, who include men and women aged from their 20s to their 70s, were all
arrested over several hours on Monday at various locations in Munster.

They were brought to different Garda stations in the southern and western
regions.

Most of them were previously quizzed earlier this year as part of the same
probe, which is examining fears up to 16 children in four families were
abused.

Eleven people were arrested back in March but all were released without
charge.

Yesterday morning senior gardaí extended the periods of detention for all 12
people currently in custody.

Detectives have been quizzing them in relation to child sexual abuse and child
exploitation offences.

The suspects in the probe are all closely linked to each other but are spread
across three counties.

A team of gardaí, including specialist interviewers, are conducting what has

been described as a "massive" investigation which is being led by a
superintendent.

The case has attracted much attention, with Fianna Fáil leader Michéal Martin
telling the Dáil earlier this year that what was alleged was "shocking and may
represent a first in this country".

A separate review, focusing on the handling of the case by Garda and Tusla
authorities, has yet to get underway.

This review was announced in March by Children's Minister Katherine

Zappone and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.

It came after the Dáil heard claims a whistleblower in the welfare sector had
voiced concerns over the urgency of the response of State agencies when
allegations first came to light.

It is understood that terms of reference have been agreed between the

Department of Justice and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

However, these have been referred to the Attorney General, who has yet to
sign off on them. All involved are anxious to ensure the review does not
interfere with the ongoing Garda probe.

The review is to be chaired by Special Rapporteur on Child Protection Dr

Geoffrey Shannon.

Issues in relation to co-operation and the exchange of information between

various agencies are set to come under microscope.
Dr Shannon previously uncovered major inadequacies in the way that
information was shared between gardaí and Tusla during an examination of
the exercise of Garda powers to remove children from the home under Section
12 of the Childcare Act.

A source familiar with the investigation said it will be the biggest abuse case in
the history of the State, and explosive for the State agencies.

Ms Zappone has described the case as "complex and serious".

In response to a parliamentary question, she said it involved the "alleged child

abuse and neglect" of 16 children in four families.

The minister said that while there was no evidence of any serious mishandling
of the case by Tusla or An Garda Síochána, she considered it good practice to
arrange for a short, focused, independent, serious-incident review of the
actions taken in the case.

She said the primary purpose of this would be that any learning from the
review could inform future work.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/questioning-of-12-as-part-of-probe-
into-what-may-be-countrys-largest-ever-paedophile-ring-extended-
37379405.html?fbclid=IwAR3o2r9o3KPJ9jSreYhlArnNUVg32V-
kXXDZPFvoW244ZVxKEdEeV-5WShw

Tusla in the dock over

paedophile ring inquiry
By Andrew Carey -
March 28, 2018

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone

THREE special investigators have been

appointed by Children’s Minister Katherine
Zappone to examine the circumstances
surrounding the State involvement in a
child sex abuse scandal, the Limerick Post
can reveal.
The review will be carried out by a panel of three
experts. It will be Chaired by Special Rapporteur on
Child Protection Dr Geoffrey Shannon, and include
Suzanne Phelan, Child Welfare Consultant, and
retired Chief Superintendent Pádraig Kennedy
nominated by the Minister for Justice and Equality.
The investigation is understood to be centring
around the involvement of Tusla, the Child and
Family Agency, in its handling of victims at the
centre of a suspected Mid West child exploitation
scandal that came to light last year.
Upwards of 15 children, across an extended family network, are
believed to be the victims of the some of the most horrific
paedophilic abuse, neglect and exploitation in the history of the
State.

Earlier this month, 11 people, including six women, were arrested as

part of a wider Garda investigation but they were all released without
charge as Gardaí continue their probe into the shocking details that
emerged from the interviews.

Some of the children were found to be in such a state of neglect that

emergency treatment and extensive medical care was required. All
the suspected victims are now the subject of court orders for the
State to provide them with statutory care under the Children’s Act.

In the days after the arrests were made, the matter was raised in the
Dáil by Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin who said that the matter
was “deeply shocking” and raised the prospect of an inquiry to
determine that every measure was taken at the earliest possible
opportunity to ensure the safety of the children involved.

The Limerick Post understands that the special investigator

appointed by Minister Zappone’s office will concentrate on Tusla’s
involvement in the cases from when the allegations first emerged.

On Wednesday night, Minister Zappone said: “There have been some

media reports and public comments about a complex and unusual
case of severe neglect and alleged child sexual abuse. Tusla, the
Child and Family Agency and An Garda Síochána have been closely
involved. Other State bodies have also been involved to some extent.

“I, along with my colleague, the Minister for Justice and Equality,
have been briefed extensively on this case. We have agreed that
while there is no evidence of any serious mishandling of the case by
either Tusla or An Garda Síochána, due to the complexity of the
current case it would be good practice to arrange for a short, focused
independent ‘Serious Incident’ review of the actions to date.

“The independent ‘Serious Incident’ review will examine the

management of the case including the inter-agency activity and co-
operation which primarily involved Tusla and An Garda Síochána.
The primary purpose of the review is to ensure that any learning
which may arise is captured at the earliest possible opportunity and
informs future work.

“I am assured that all the children identified as victims of this abuse

have been taken into care. No specific details of the case can be
discussed and I am conscious that it is illegal under the Child Care
Act, 1991, to publish information that could lead to the
identification of a child in care.”

Both Ministers are conscious that it will be important to ensure that

this non-statutory review does not risk prejudicing the on-going
investigation and criminal prosecution. With this in mind, the
Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, Dr Geoffrey Shannon will
assist with drafting the terms of reference. The Terms of Reference
will be subject to the receipt of advice by the Attorney General’s
Office before they are finalised.

It is intended that the review will be completed as soon as possible

after terms of reference have been agreed. The Review Team will
submit a report to the Ministers for Children and Youth Affairs and
Justice and Equality. A further update will be provided to the Cabinet
at that stage. Publication of the review will be considered in due
course and will be subject to legal advice.

https://www.limerickpost.ie/2018/03/28/tusla-in-the-dock-over-paedophile-ring-

inquiry/?fbclid=IwAR0mqajdbl4B5i2eOInVLaeLZz83xNx7kGrPF_hePwA3dMks-VfiE_mIngQ
Survivors of institutional abuse call for notorious
Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork to be
declared a crime scene amid cover-up fears
Exclusive: Fresh fears of a cover-up were raised after a
structure near the plot where the bodies of countless babies
are believed to be buried was flattened last week

BY
SYLVIA POWNALL
17 MAR 2019

Ann O'Gorman, Ballynanty, Limerick who had been in a

Mother and Baby Home
Survivors of institutional abuse have called for the
notorious Bessborough Mother and Baby Home to be
declared a crime scene after bulldozers moved on to the
site.
Fresh fears of a cover-up were raised after a structure
near the plot where the bodies of countless babies are
believed to be buried was flattened last week.

Demolition work has now been halted and a planning

probe by Cork City Council is under way – but outraged
survivors want answers.
Ann O’Gorman, who first shared her story in the Sunday
Mirror two weeks ago, gave birth to baby Evelyn at
Bessborough in 1971.
She was told her infant died although there are
discrepancies in both her birth and death certificate and
she was never shown where the body was buried.

Angel's Plot at Bessborough bulldozed

Angel's Plot at Bessborough bulldozed
Ann fears she will die without learning the truth and said news the Angel’s Plot
may have been dug up has left her broken.

She told the Sunday Mirror: “I am gutted. They are ripping my heart out all
again. I’m not able to sleep since I heard about it.

“Nobody knows how much damage has been done. They should not be
touching it. It is a horror story what they are doing, it would turn your
stomach.”

Limerick woman Ann, 65, believes the excavation is just another part of the
cover-up by nuns – and she fears her speaking out may have spurred them
into action.

She said: “I feel they’re covering up something. It’s sticking out a mile. It
happened just after I shared my story about Evelyn and not knowing what
happened to her.

“I have a feeling now that they will dig up the tiny bodies during the night.
Under cover of darkness they will take the bodies of the babies.
“They don’t care. Didn’t they do it in Tuam? They’re burying our files for 75
years. It’s a cover-up.”
The demolition of the historic folly near the burial plot was earlier this week
described by historian and councillor Kieran McCarthy as an attack on the
city’s DNA.

Cork City Council heard an enforcement file has been opened into
Bessborough, which had the highest infant mortality rate of any religious-run
institution. The historic Castle Folly is owned by the Sisters of the Sacred
Hearts of Jesus and Mary and is on the site of the nuns’ burial plot. Demolition
work began last week after a sign was erected on the gate stating the two-
storey structure dating back to the 1800s presents a “major health and safety
hazard”.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission confirmed it had been notified of
the “maintenance works” and accepted the structure was in poor condition.

The Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary confirmed their intention to
sell the property in 2017 but said the cemetery and remembrance site would
not be sold. Last month Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said the
Commission had carried out “initial testing” at the site which “may lead to
more invasive test excavations” if necessary.

Burial arrangements at Bessborough were due to be outlined in a report which

was due to be submitted to Ms Zappone on Friday.
Minister for Chidren & Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone

The plot contains the graves of a number of nuns as well

as a plaque commemorating infants who died at the home.
Catherine Coffey, who escaped from Bessborough in 1989
after being brought there by social workers as a child,
visited the site on Friday and was ordered to leave.
She has now lodged a formal complaint with Cork City
Council and with the Commission of Inquiry into Mother
and Baby Homes.
She told the Sunday Mirror: “This is two fingers from the
nuns to the birth mothers, the commission and the
Government.
“This just shows you the disrespect and disregard this
Order actually has for anyone who went through the gates
of Bessborough.
“The bottom line is the commission does not represent the
mothers. They took a walk around Bessborough, which is
100 acres by the way, and decided there was no need for
any excavation before these works started. There are
plans for a park and a playground here – do they want to
have families picnicking on top of babies’ graves? They
cannot build anything on Bessborough until it is
investigated.
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/survivors-
institutional-abuse-call-notorious-14147796
Joe Little: Priest says
abuse scandal 'almost
fatally destroyed'
Catholic Church
Updated / Thursday, 9 Feb 2017

Fr Gerry O'Hanlon said the loss of the church's moral authority

here once the abuse scandal was publicly exposed was what he
called the 'crucial' factor

By Joe Little
Religious & Social Affairs Correspondent

The Catholic Church in Ireland has been "almost

fatally destroyed" by the clerical child sexual abuse
scandal, according to a former Provincial of the Jesuit
Order here.
Fr Gerry O'Hanlon SJ told an Australian inquiry into
abuse that the loss of the church's moral authority
here once the scandal was publicly exposed was
what he called the "crucial" factor.
He said the Irish hierarchy was forced in the 1990s,
"not least due to media intervention and the
intervention of public opinion to be more proactive"
about the crisis. He said the bishops here owe a lot to
survivors and victims who have spoken out on the
issue.
But he added that "Rome didn't seem to quite get it"
probably well into the current millennium and that the
Catholic Church was poorly prepared to examine
abuse complaints because the priest was perceived
"as in some sense superior".
He made his remarks by video-link from Dublin to
Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse which is sitting in
Sydney.

For four years now, a six-member Royal Commission

has been investigating how institutions of all sorts
with a responsibility for children managed and
responded to allegations and instances of child
sexual abuse.
Appearing early this morning, Fr Gerry O'Hanlon
spoke about his church's experience of the unfolding
scandal here.
He told Gail Furness, counsel for the Commission, he
thought the issue of child sexual abuse by clergy and
religious probably first came to his attention in the
late 1980s and early 1990s, and later during the six
years after 1998 when, as Provincial of the Irish
Jesuits, it was "a very important part of (his)
responsibility".
He agreed with counsel that it was part of his job to
deal with claims and allegations in relation to the
Jesuits.
He recounted setting up a small committee,
comprising "a psychologist, a legal person - a judge -
and a Jesuit" and said they advised him throughout
his six years as Provincial on the various issues
which came up.
He continued: "We tried, in addressing those issues,
to combine what we called a pastoral approach with
a legal approach. So on different occasions I met a
number of the people who had been abused, and I
think that was probably the best learning experience
for me. I had read literature, I had attended
conferences, but I think that the most relevant
learning occurred when I sat down, sometimes for
long periods, with people who had been abused and
who told me their story.”
He said that among the things he had learned was
"the devastation (the abuse) had wreaked on their
lives, not just with regard to their own life, but the
lives their families.
"I recall in particular one person talking to me about
the impact it had had on his own family life and his
difficulty, for example, in touching his own children
and expressing intimacy in a physical kind of way,
and the great relief that came to him when he found
that he was able to do that with his grandchildren.
"But I was so struck by the fact that for most of his
adult life, he had been imprisoned, if you like, in that
inability to express himself in a most normal way with
his own children. It struck me what an awful effect
that had had on his life, and obviously he was one of
many."
Asked by counsel whether speaking to survivors like
that man had affected the way that he approached
claims that were made to him, Fr O'Hanlon said his
committee was advising him, and very often I wasn't
in the frontline.
"But, yes, it did. We were already committed at that
point to very strongly doing what we could to redress
the terrible damage that had been done. But certainly
from my own point of view, it added to my
determination to do the very best that we could do to
right the terrible wrong that had been done to these
people by Jesuits."
Asked about the government-established Murphy
Report which was published in 2009, Fr O'Hanlon
said it made him reflect more intensely on how the
church was organised.
He said that despite the reforms proposed by the
Second Vatican Council (1962-65) it had retained a
"very much … top-down model of authority".
"That was particularly emphasised during the
pontificate of John Paul II, who did marvellous things,
added extra if you like, with regard to the church,
particularly with regard to relations with communism
and (the) Solidarity (Movement)…. in Poland, but
internally was very firm about the strong monarchical
model of papacy and centralisation."
He said he believed this centralised model of
authority was unhealthy and "a contributing factor to
the delay and the poor response of the Catholic
Church to the emergence of the clerical child sexual
abuse scandal".
Citing the Dominican theologian Yves Congar's
reference to "a creeping infallibility" in the church, he
said "everything that came from Rome was taken as
gospel, and local bishops didn't take their own
responsibility seriously enough; they looked over their
shoulder all the time to Rome. This constant recourse
to Rome and the fact that the organisation was very
top-down and tightly controlled served the church
poorly when the issue of child sexual abuse
emerged, because what happened there was that at
the very top, certainly at the level of priests, a
grievous injury was being inflicted on the church, and
the church was poorly prepared to examine the
complaints that were coming in because it was used
to seeing the priest as in some way, if you like, above
reproach and perceived within the church, not just by
priests but also by laypeople, as in some sense
superior.
"So, in that sense, there weren't other voices being
introduced. And I think allied to that - and it ties in
with the business of a tightly controlled organisation -
there was a real lack of freedom of speech and public
opinion within the church. So when people wanted to
speak - and I'm not just talking about clerical child
sexual abuse but about other issues in the church
that might have been considered to be controversial -
if they weren't following what was perceived as
orthodoxy, often defined in the very narrow sense,
then they were liable to censure of one sort or
another. That was particularly so in the area of
sexuality and gender. So there was a particularly tight
rein, if you like, kept on opinion in those areas.
"When priests or laypeople were accused of stepping
out of line (regarding child sexual abuse), the
procedures for redress were not robust. The
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has a
number of procedures which they have outlined in an
instruction, which was updated in the late 1970s, with
regard to a just way of proceeding with regard to
complaints, but in fact most canon lawyers looking at
that would say that they fail to meet the standard of
ordinary secular justice and they don't give a good
hearing to people.
"So there was an overall culture within the church of
lack of freedom of speech, deference to priesthood,
bishops, if you like, almost a sense that they were
right, and that was a very unhealthy situation, which
Ladislas Orsy, the American canon lawyer, has
referred to as a lack of a vigorous immune system
within the church, " Fr O'Hanlon said.
Counsel asked if he had understood that there were
any particular instructions, not necessarily of a formal
type, from Rome as to how the Irish church
authorities should deal with clerical child sexual
abuse.
He replied: "Yes, there is some evidence during the
1990s of toing-and-froing between Rome - and
qualifying what I said about the bishops not taking up
their own responsibility, I think they were forced in the
1990s, not least due to media intervention and the
intervention of public opinion - the bishops were
forced to be more proactive about the whole
situation.
"They did engage with the situation, and at a certain
point, it would seem, in the toing-and-froing between
them and Rome that Rome was certainly learning
rather than the bishops learning. In other words, at
some point during that period - and I would say
lasting until the end of the 1990s and probably well
into the 2000s - Rome didn't seem to quite get it.
They were very reluctant, for example, to approve the
proper reporting to civil authorities and there is
evidence that a number of Irish bishops were very
unhappy with that, and the Irish bishops went ahead,
anyway….."
The Commission's Chair, Justice Peter McClellan
asked Fr O'Hanlon if the church would have brought
down the wrath of the society on itself if it had
identified abuse early on in the scandal as a crime
and taken it to the civil authorities. He responded that
that would not have been the crucial thing.
"I think the loss of moral authority in Ireland, which
had already happened once this scandal came out
into the open, was altogether the crucial thing. I think
where it might be argued along the lines you are
suggesting is that for them to admit it was a crime,
and in that sense go legal, they would incur all kinds
of financial liabilities and so on, and I think there's
certainly some possibility that that was a factor. But
I've no hesitation in saying there was an institutional
defensiveness around reputation. I think it pertained
as much to the moral arena as the legal arena.
"I think it's a defensiveness that you will find in many
other organisations. We are finding it, for example, in
England at the moment with regard to as different a
field as professional football, soccer. We find it in
different organisations. But of course it was all the
more egregious coming from an organisation which, if
you like, in a good sense, prided itself on doing what
was good and what was right and favouring the
weakest. For an organisation like that to have been
shown to be so at fault and so in error, I think the
reputational damage was enormous, and that was so
whether it was simply a moral issue or had also
criminal ramifications, which it clearly had."
Fr O'Hanlon agreed that secrecy, deference to
priests and, in turn, deference of the bishops to the
Pope clearly effected the institutional response of the
church to allegations. But he added that he thought,
over the long run, what had happened was that the
Catholic Church, "certainly in Ireland - I can only
speak for Ireland, but I also see signs of it happening
in Rome as well" - had "come up with a very vigorous
response to child sexual abuse, and their guidelines
are recognised to be very progressive, and the
resources that they have put in in terms of pastoral,
psychological, legal, monetary, have been
considerable."
Turning to the legal aspect of the scandal, Fr
O'Hanlon said that if the church had been left to its
own devices, they probably would not have reported
to the civil authorities.
"I think they owe a lot to the voices of the survivors,
the voices of those who still describe themselves as
victims, and the media for putting the kind of pressure
on that allowed the church, in the end, to do the right
thing and to understand - in a way that formally they
may have done so, but operatively they hadn't done
so - the intrinsic and legal implications of what was
involved. Certainly in Ireland, it's no longer an issue.
Things are reported to the legal authorities very, very
quickly."
https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2017/0208/851235-church-clerical-abuse/

Shocking abuse
statistics released

Nov 20, 2008 Joanne McCarthy

One in every four people who reported to rape
crisis centres in 2007 was abused by more than
one abuser. Furthermore, 60% of people abused
in Ireland in childhood were abused for longer
than a year.

The statistics were published by the Rape Crisis

Network Ireland (RCNI) yesterday, who analysed
reports of 1,691 survivors of sexual violence
crimes who attended 14 rape crisis centres in
2007.

Fiona Neary, director of the RCNI, said that rape,

child sexual abuse and incest continue to
damage Ireland today. Almost 7% of childhood
abuse was perpetrated on girls under the age of
four, she said.

“We can see clearly that girls and boys are

abused differently and also that the nature of
abuse can change with the age of the victim,”
said Ms Neary.
Girls are much more likely to be abused by a
family member. More than half (55%) of the
abuse carried out on girls is perpetrated by a
family member, compared to one third of the
abuse committed on boys. Younger girls are
more likely to be abused by family members than
girls aged over 11.
Boys are much more likely than girls to be
abused by an authority figure, which may include
a youth leader, priest, or sports coach.
Girls are twice as likely as boys to be abused
both as children and as adults.
While the risk to sexual violence greatly
decreases for boys as they grow up, no such
safe haven is available to women, as the risk of
sexual violence only decreases by 10% in
adulthood.
According to the statistics, for adult women the
abuser is a partner or ex partner in almost one
quarter of cases. The family home remains
‘singularly unsafe for girl children and adult
women’, Ms Neary stressed.
In 86% of child abuse cases, the abuser is likely
to be well known to the family, if not a family
member. Offenders are overwhelmingly male, at
96%.
One of the most shocking revelations contained
in the report is the nature of abuse that is
reported to Gardaí.
“Women are least likely to report one of the most
common forms of adult rape, that by a partner or
ex partner and most likely to report to the Gardaí
the least likely rape, that perpetrated by a
stranger,” Ms Neary stressed.
The least likely of all sexual abuse to be reported
to the Gardaí is abuse of a child by a family
member, which is one of the most common forms
of abuse.
“It is clear that the relationship of the perpetrator
to the victim is extremely significant in the
victim’s decision of whether or not to report. We
must ask ourselves how we can change this,” Ms
Neary continued.
The Rape Crisis Network National Statistics 2007
is available at www.rcni.ie under ‘publications’. To
contact the Rape Crisis Centre at any time,
freephone 1800 778888.
http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=14649

A history of child abuse in Ireland

Thursday, September 18, 2014
The mistreatment of children is not new in Ireland, writes Aileen Lee. In
the 18th and 19th centuries they were kidnapped for use as beggars,
robbed of their clothes, or sold as servants and transported to British
colonies in America

THE last two decades have revealed a culture of abuse of children, by Church and
State, in 20th-century Ireland. We are still coming to terms with that dark chapter of
our history, as the survivors push for recognition and justice.
But this abuse is not new — the 18th and 19th centuries are replete with stories of
Irish children who were kidnapped and trafficked out of the country.

News reports from the time show that Irish children were seen as economic
commodities — kidnapped and sold as indentured servants; stripped of their clothing;
used as cheap labour; or physically deformed for begging. In some of these cases, the
children met a brutal end.

This abuse predates the Victorian concept of childhood as precious, highlighting the
myriad of ways that children were targeted to make money.

James Kelly, Cregan professor of history at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, has

researched child kidnapping and trafficking in Ireland.

At a recent international conference on the history of Irish childhood, from the

medieval to the modern age, Professor Kelly presented a paper, ‘An Infamous Trade:
the Kidnapping of Children, 1740-1820’.

His research revealed “a stream of press reports of the kidnapping of children,

between the ages of three and seven, beginning in the 1730s and continuing, fitfully,
into the early decades of the 19th century”.

To set the scene: this was the era of the penal laws, of Protestant ascendancy, of the
development of the landed gentry and the ‘Big House’. It was also a time of dire
poverty — the famine of 1740-41 was of a similar magnitude to An Górta Mór (1845-
1852) — rebellion, and factional violence.

“We will never know the true numbers of the children who fell victim to these
criminal actions,” Kelly says, “as the incidents of child kidnapping that made it into
the press were reflective only of those perpetrators who were caught in the act, or
facing sentence. However, it is clear that it was a serious problem,” he says.

Britain’s control in the Americas extended across 13 colonies along the eastern
seaboard. The colonies’ purpose was to enrich Britain and to do this they needed
cheap labour. That need, combined with the increased capacity for passengers on
ships, allowed for a market to open in the kidnapping and transportation of Irish
children as indentured servants.
On arrival, an employer would purchase the agreed indenture from a sea captain, and
the child would be obliged to work for between four and seven years. The indentures
were binding in the local courts in America. The work was harsh, with a high death
rate among the servants.

Kelly says it is likely that hundreds of children were kidnapped and transported to
North America.

The main perpetrators identified in news reports were “strolling beggars, female
vagabonds and avaricious ships’ captains”. The kidnapping appears to have been
highly organised.

In September and October of 1750, for example, The Munster Journal reported three
separate kidnappings of five children, with the intention being to ship them privately
to America.

There was money to be made in the trade. Bridget Mooney, one of three women
arrested in the space of a week, in 1781, for kidnapping children for transportation,
said that she had received £30 from a sea captain in the harbour for supplying
children. In today’s money, that is about €4,000.

Following the colonists’ victory over the British in the American Revolutionary War
(1775 – 1783), there was a surge in emigration from Ireland. With the number of
passengers greatly increased, and the cost of passage with it, ship captains had no
difficulty in filling their ships.

While, as a consequence, there was a lull in child kidnapping, it resumed in 1785, as

evidenced by the statement in the Dublin Morning Post, on May 12, 1785, that “the
infamous practice of kidnapping children is continued with impunity through this
city”.

Not all abducted children were transported — some were used for cheap domestic
labour, for example as chimney sweeps.

“In a small number of instances,” Kelly says, “the perpetrators were mothers with
alcohol addictions, who sold their children on for ‘a guinea and a crown’s worth of
drink’.”
Kelly also says that in cases where beggars kidnapped children without the intention
of selling them onto ship captains, the “most compelling alternative explanation” is
that they “kept them to assist them in their ongoing quest for alms”.

Kelly also says that beggars often broke the limbs of children “to distort them, and
move compassion”, as reported in the Dublin Morning Post (1791).

Children were also kidnapped to be stripped of their clothes. An adult, generally a

woman, would lure the child away with the help of sweets, fruit, ginger bread or the
promise of a toy or reward. Once away from their home, the child was defenceless to
prevent the adult stripping them of their clothes, before being abandoned.

“Though direct physical violence was seldom employed in these cases, it could be
invoked if the child resisted,” Kelly says.

In a newspaper report in the Volunteer Evening Post (June 2, 1787), the daughter of a
linen draper, from Mary Street in Dublin, was threatened with murder if she resisted.

At a time when the population was extremely poor, and clothing expensive, there was
a big market in the pawning and selling of second-hand clothes.

For example, in Mary Conolly’s trial at the Dublin Quarter Sessions, in 1794, for the
kidnapping of John Stockdale’s daughter, the three items of clothing she stole — a
bonnet, coat and shift — were valued at five shillings 5d [pence] by the court
(approximately €34).

Typically, children aged between three and six years were targeted, and it seemed to
be more of an urban than rural issue, as the majority of recorded instances occurred in
Dublin.

Take the following examples, reported in the Hibernian Journal on August 21, 1789:
“At about one o’clock last Monday [17 August 1789], a little girl, the daughter of a
grocer in King Street, standing [at] the shop door, was decoyed [lured away] by a
female, and brought into an entry near the place, and robbed of her earrings, frock,
skirt and buckles; and, the same day, the daughter of an ale-draper in Exchequer
Street, a fine child of about five years old, was seduced in like manner from her
parents’ door into an entry in said street, where the little creature was completely
stripped and left naked.”

THE punishment of perpetrators by the authorities varied: some were publicly

whipped, others fined and imprisoned.

News reports show that the public enacted their own punishment: giving perpetrators
severe duckings, as in the case of Mary Spencer, who “made it a practice of stealing
children”. She was caught at St Kevin’s Port trying to lure a four-year-old boy away
(Freeman’s Journal, March 26, 1768).

In another example, from 1781, a woman was caught in Thomas Street, Dublin, with
five children whom she had lured away with gingerbread cakes.

A group of people stripped her, dragged her about the street and cut off her ears, after
which she confessed to having kidnapped at least 27 children and indicated where
they could be found.

“Public anger was not unjustified. A substantial proportion of the children taken were
never recovered,” Kelly says. He also speculates that the purpose of stripping children
“cannot be completely divorced from child sale, child murder or paedophiliac intent”.

A child’s life could be brutally taken, as a horrific report in the Belfast Newsletter
shows.

The body of a child aged about three or four years old, who was taken by a “strolling
woman” in the summer of 1788, near Omagh, was found “lying at the back of a ditch
near the town, with its throat cut from ear to ear, and stabbed in many parts of the
body”.

In 1815, the authorities began imposing a sentence of seven years’ transportation for
stripping offences, and it seems to have had the desired effect, as no incidents of
children being stripped were reported after 1819.

Child kidnapping continued intermittently, until it became identified with slavery in

the 1840s. From then on, the only identifiable incidents of kidnapped children were
abroad.
These crimes highlight a society that was often callous in its treatment of children.

Kelly gives the example of the Foundling Hospital, in Dublin — near where St James
Hospital is located — which was charged with the care of the orphaned and
illegitimate, and which had a mortality rate of 95% in 1791.

“Six years later, Sir John Blaquiere, the MP who had originally highlighted the issue,
reported that 98.86% of the children admitted to the hospital in the six years to March,
1796, were either dead or unaccounted for,” says Kelly.

The older children in the city’s Protestant charter schools were also prey to
exploitative labour practices, physical abuse and poor care, the penalty for being
‘illegitimate’. Being poor was also penalised. Some children were not ‘illegitimate’,
but were from destitute families, and, once removed from their families, it was
difficult for them to be claimed back, as the authorities used a system of
transplantation, moving children to schools in different districts.

Various official inspections confirmed these abuses, but they remained in operation
until they petered out in the mid-19th century.

The closure of Ireland’s industrial schools and mother-and-baby homes has not
heralded an end of the brutal abuse of children in this State.

Modern-day slavery exists here — almost half of the people trafficked in Ireland in
2012 were children. In 2013, 16 out of the 44 people formally identified as having
been trafficked in the country were also children.

Denise Charlton, chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, says that in the
past two years 30 children have been “detected as being trafficked in Ireland for the
purpose of sexual exploitation”.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/a-history-of-child-abuse-in-
ireland-287151.html

Jan O Sullivan In Irish Independent to burying our files of Child Abuse for
another 75 years.
Ireland's forgotten mixed-race child
abuse victims
Feb 24, 2017
Rosemary Adaser was one of many mixed-race children considered illegitimate who was brought up in
institutions run by the Catholic church in Ireland between the 1950s and 1970s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC_CpnwZPYM

Father Thomas Doyle on the Irish

Child Abuse Report
Posted on May 27, 2009 by Michael
I read a great article by Father Thomas Doyle entitled Irish abuse report
demands decisive action with his observations on the recently released
report in Ireland that came from the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse
and covered a 60-year-period from 1936 to the present. It raised serious
questions about Catholic institutions that permitted and fostered climates of
sustained abuse by priests and nuns.

Father Doyle is a canon lawyer and has been a steadfast advocate for victims
of abuse. He is a Dominican Priest. He is a godsend to people like me.

Read the article, it is your current homework assignment.

My favorite passage from his article is the simple yet powerful summation of
the attitude of the Catholic Church:

The official reaction is predictable. Denial, minimization, blame shifting and

finally limited acknowledgment followed by carefully nuanced “apologies” has
been the standard fare. At no time has the leadership of any part of the
institutional Church ever owned up to any systemic accountability. The
standard responses are totally unacceptable because they are devious and
irrelevant. Those who still hold to the institutional Church as their source of
emotional security may well bray about anti-Catholicism, media
sensationalism and exaggeration of what they claim to be an aberration. Such
responses are mindless but far worse, they inflict even more pain on the
thousands whose lives have been violated.

Can someone tell me why the laity of the Catholic Church remains in their
lethargic daze? Why aren’t people screaming, pounding on the doors of
Chanceries, withholding donations and seeking reform? I am at a loss!
https://michaelbaumann.blog/2009/05/27/father-thomas-doyle-on-the-irish-child-abuse-
report/

Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic

Archdiocese of Dublin
Report by Commission of Investigation into Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
Cover Part 1

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Cover%20Part%201.pdf/Files/Cover%20Part%201.pdf

Signatures (after Part 1 cover)

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Signatures%20(after%20Part%201%20cover).pdf/Files/Sign
atures%20(after%20Part%201%20cover).pdf

Commission of Investigation Report into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

July 2009 DACOI Part 1 beginning

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/DACOI%20Part%201%20be
ginning.pdf/Files/DACOI%20Part%201%20beginning.pdf
DACOI Part 1
http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/DACOI%20Part%201.pdf/Fil
es/DACOI%20Part%201.pdf

The Mother and Child Scheme was introduced by the Minister for Health to provide mothers with free maternity treatment
and their children with free medical care up to the age of 16

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/DACOI%20Appendices.pdf/Files/DACOI%20Appendices.pdf

report by Commission of Investigation into the handling by Church and State authorities of
allegations and suspicions of child abuse against clerics of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin.

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/DACOI%20Fr%20Jovito%20published.pdf/Files/DACOI%2
0Fr%20Jovito%20published.pdf

Supplementary Report into Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Dublin_Supp_Rpt.pdf/Files/Dublin_Supp_Rpt.pdf

Charter for the Protection ofChildren and Young People

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-
protection/upload/Charter-for-the-Protection-of-Children-and-Young-People-
2018-final.pdf

Cynthia Owen : Irelands Garda

A - Operating A Paedophile
Network ?
Sunday Tribune 2-10-07
"IT TOOK a jury at an inquest just under four-and-a-half hours to
decide what gardaA- have been investigating for 34 years.

At the four-day inquest held at Dublin County Coroner's Court last

week, Cynthia alleged she was raped repeatedly from the age of
seven or eight into her teenage years by four different people. And
she wasn't the only one making accusations. Her three sisters and a
niece made allegations of sexual abuse also, as did two of her
brothers, both now dead.
All the horrific details of sodomy and incest were not reported in the
newspapers. No one could bear to read it. But it's what remained
unsaid at the coroner's hearing that may be more shocking than
the alleged sexual assault.

Why did 11-year-old Cynthia - who said she had just watched
her mother kill her baby that night and then attempt to drown
her - not run into the arms of gardaA-?
"I can't go into that, " she told the court quietly when questioned.
Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty was quick to interject. "There are
reasons outside this inquest why she couldn't go to gardaA-, " he
informed the jury, who looked puzzled. It seemed strange to them
that she'd rather go home to a house where she said she suffered
systematic rape on a regular basis than seek police help.
Implications hung heavy in the air about why she would fear
some members of the gardaA- more than members of her own
family."
...........................
(Quote from Jim Cairns!)
Note how the Sunday Tribune journalist inserts a capital A in many
words and names in the article- is he/she inferring that the A represents
an occult symbol?

http://jerseyabusescandal.blogspot.com/2011/11/cynthis-owen-
irelands-garda-operating.html

Cloyne Report - In
Detail
Updated / Wednesday, 13 Jul 2011 23:27
Bishop John Magee

Cloyne Report in full
Helplines

Government News Conference
Church News Conference
The Cloyne Report scrutinises how both Catholic
Church and State authorities handled allegations of
abuse against 19 clerics in the Co Cork diocese.
Judge Yvonne Murphy and two fellow commissioners
were not tasked with establishing whether child
sexual abuse took place or whether there was a
basis for suspicions or concerns.
The inquiry was ordered by the Government in 2009,
following revelations that child protection practices in
the diocese were inadequate and in some respects
dangerous.
The report refers to the priests using pseudonyms,
among them Fr Baird, Fr Caden, Fr Calder, Fr Corin,
Fr Drust, Fr Flan, Fr Kael, Fr Moray, Fr Ronat and Fr
Tarin.
ADVERTISEMENT

Main findings from the Commission of Investigation

Bishop John Magee misled a previous inquiry and
gave a false account of how he was handling
allegations
Between 1996 and 2005, the diocese failed to report
nine out of 15 complaints made against priests,
which 'very clearly should have been reported'
'The most serious lapse was the failure to report the
two cases in which the alleged victims were
minors at the time the complaint was made'
While the dioceses ostensibly supported child
protection procedures, it was 'never genuinely
committed to their implementation'
The 'diocese put far too much emphasis on the
concerns of the alleged offenders'
The report says Bishop John Magee must take
primary responsibility for the failure to implement
the procedures
The Catholic Diocese of Cloyne was ignoring the
church's own guidelines on child protection as
recently at 2009
In most cases gardaí were not informed of child
 abuse allegations against clergy
Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan 'stymied' the
implementation in Cloyne of child protection
policy, and told the Commission he was 'very
disappointed' with it
Monsignor O'Callaghan first withheld the identity of a
perpetrator from authorities and then attempted
to have a particular garda officer investigate it
In what the report said was 'clearly and
unequivocally' a child sexual abuse case, the
Commission says it cannot understand how the
Monsignor concluded no sexual abuse had
occurred
The Vatican and its representatives are also criticised
- the Commission says the Papal Nuncio replied
to its request for information by saying he was
'unable to assist you in this matter'
The garda response comes under the Commission's
microscope - on one case the Commission says
it does not accept there was a proper
investigation of the complaints, despite the fact
the gardaí insist an investigation took place
The Commission also reveals how an allegation was
made against Bishop Magee himself in 2008 by
an 18-year-old who claimed he was embraced
and kissed on the forehead by the bishop

While the behaviour was deemed inappropriate, it

was found not to be abusive by church and State
authorities. The report concludes the case was
dealt with appropriately
Details and reaction:
2230 A spokesman for the Department of Foreign
Affairs said the Tanaiste was seeking a meeting as
soon as possible with the Papal Nuncio.
1920 Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence Alan
Shatter that the Government will decide in the early
autumn if inquiries will have to be held into child sex
abuse in other dioceses.
Speaking on RTE's Six-One News, Mr Shatter said
audit results are expected in September from the
church's own abuse watchdog, Ian Elliot and from the
HSE and an assessment of the need for further
judicial investigations will be made then.
Mr Shatter said it was scandalous that the Church in
Cloyne was not implementing its own guidelines in
the years following publication of the new framework
document in 1996.
1755 The priest who walked from the Cloyne diocese
to Dublin to call for Bishop Magee's resignation has
said the Papal Nuncio has questions to answer about
the Vatican's 'appalling' attitude to the Irish church's
mandatory reporting policy.
Fr Michael Mernagh told RTÉ News that he was
surprised and very disappointed with the revelation
that the Vatican described the guidelines on reporting
child abuse allegations to the civil authorities as
'merely a study document'.
The Augustinian friar said that if the Vatican regarded
the guidelines as study notes and as unimportant,
one would really have to ask what power the Irish
church authorities had in implementing their 1996
guidelines.
1710 All-Ireland Primate Cardinal Sean Brady has
said the publication of the report was a very bad and
dark day for the Catholic Church in Ireland.
Speaking at the Drumcree Pastoral Centre in
Portadown, the Cardinal said he had not considered
resigning as a result of the report and said he would
welcome the Murphy Commission into the Armagh
diocese if it chose to come.
1705 President Mary McAleese has said that lessons
still have to be learned in the welfare and protection
of area.
She added: 'The chastening truth revealed in the
Cloyne Report about such recent facts and events
must compel the strictest future adherence by
church, state and citizens to all laws and best
practice protocols around child protection, and further
steps in this regard are being taken by the
Government.
'Every effort must be expended so that we can firmly
consign this shameful period to history and be sure
that our children do in fact come first.'
1655 Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Children Charlie
McConalogue said that what was done to the children
was 'shocking, awful and unforgivable'.
'The effort to cover up the abuse was appalling. The
pain and full horror of this abuse of trust will leave
people across our country deeply upset and angry,'
he added.
1650 Sinn Féin's Caoimhghín O Caoláin described
the report as a 'damning indictment' of the Catholic
Church and of the Vatican, who had covered up
abuse.
Mr O Caoláin said the Papal Nuncio should be called
in to be told of the Government's anger on the issue.
He pledged Sinn Féin support for the Government's
planned legislation on mandatory reporting.
1620 Fianna Fáil's Billy Kelleher described the report
as 'horrendous', and said the Church authorities must
now co-operate fully with investigations into abuse.
Mr Kelleher also called for the establishment of a
National Forum, which could hear the views of the
victims of abuse.
1614 Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald is to
publish the new 'Children First' national guidance
document on Friday.
She said a raft of measures will be in place, including
imprisonment and fines, for failure to comply with the
child protection code.
The Minister said: 'Never again will someone be
allowed to place the protection of their institution
above the protection of children'.
1606 The Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr Dermot
Clifford said he was appalled by the depth of damage
and suffering and that it was a very sad day for all the
priests and people in the diocese.
Dr Clifford said that a number of structures were now
in place so that people will have full and adequate
information on the safeguarding of children.
1605 The Garda Commissioner has apologised to the
victims in the Cloyne report whose cases were not
properly investigated by the gardaí.
Martin Callinan said it was a matter of regret that
people did not receive the attention and action to
which they were entitled.
1603: Fr Baird: An anonymous complaint was made
to Bishop Magee in 1997 about Fr Baird's behaviour.
He was a teacher in a boarding school and regularly
invited students to his room, where they would drink
until the early hours of the morning.
There was one complaint of sexual abuse made
against Fr Baird in 2002.
The priest denied the allegation but while the matter
was being investigated he was suspended from his
ministry and removed from the school. Fr Baird died
in 2004, aged 44, after a serious illness.
1557 Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan said: 'I
acknowledge and I am sorry that, in responding to
the allegations of abuse, I, in some instances,
became emotionally and pastorally drawn to the
plight of the accused priest, to the detriment of the
pastoral response I intended to make to
complainants.'
Msgr O'Callaghan said it was never his intention to
add to the immense burden being carried by those
who had already been abused.
1555 The Commission says Monsignor O'Callaghan
'stymied' the implementation in Cloyne of the Irish
hierarchy's policy despite having the immediate
responsibility for reporting to the civil authorities.
He told the Commission he was 'very disappointed'
with the policy and that 'the bishops had rolled over
under pressure from the media and they expected
Rome to endorse the new policy'.
The Commission says the Vatican described the
1996 guidelines as 'merely a study document', a
stance which 'comforted and supported' dissenters
from the Irish bishops' collective
1553 Bishop Magee: The inquiry also dealt with a
personal complaint against the former Bishop
himself.
The report said concerns had been raised about
Bishop John Magee's own interaction with a 17-year-
old youth named as Joseph. As a result of the
complaint, the Bishop had to receive 'boundary
counselling'.
The concerns relate to a meeting the young man had
alone with the Bishop after he had decided not to
take up a priestly vocation.
Joseph reported that the bishop embraced him tightly
for around a minute and at the same time asked if it
'felt good.' Joseph also said the bishop kissed him on
the forehead, and that Magee told him he loved him
and that he dreamt about him.
1547 Bishop John Magee has said he was
particularly saddened when reading accounts of the
complainants describing their abuse, 'knowing that I
contributed to their distress.'
He said: 'The people, who were so terribly abused by
priests, found the courage to come forward to talk to
me, or to my delegate, Msgr O' Callaghan who was
representing me, and in many cases, we failed them.
'I am sorry that this happened and I unreservedly
apologise to all those who suffered additional hurt
because of the flawed implementation of the Church
procedures, for which I take full responsibility.'
1544 Cardinal Seán Brady said the publication of the
report represented 'another dark day in the history
of the response of Church leaders to the cry of
children abused by Church personnel'.
1541 Between 1996 - when the Irish bishops
introduced guidelines for mandatory reporting - and
2005, the Diocese failed to report nine out of 15
complaints against priests which 'very clearly should
have been reported'.
The Commission says 'the most serious lapse was
the failure to report two cases in which the alleged
victims were minors at the time of the complaint'.
Between 1996 and 2008 the diocese failed to report
any complaints to the health authorities.
1538 One In Four has responded to the report,
saying it covers 'the same shocking, distressing
ground as its predecessors, the Ferns, Ryan and
Murphy Reports.'
'It documents a familiar saga of priests sexually
abusing children with impunity, protected by senior
Churchmen conspiring to cover up the abuse with an
astounding indifference to the safety of children.'
1529 Fr Drust: In this case the diocese did
immediately, in 2002, report the complaint to gardaí,
even though Monsignor O'Callaghan made it clear
that he did not think this was appropriate.
The abuse is alleged to have occurred between 1967
and 1971.
The woman first made a complaint in 1990 and again
in 2002.
Fr Drust was formally removed from ministry but the
perception was that he was a retired priest rather
than one removed from ministry, and he continued
music classes with children.
The DPP decided to prosecute in the case but was
prohibited because of exceptional circumstances on
the application of Fr Drust. However, the dioceses
continued to state that the DPP decided not to
prosecute.
1524 Fr Flan: This chapter deals with one of only two
cases in the report where the complaint was made
concerning a person who was still a child.
Fr Flan admitted to Monsignor O'Callaghan that he
had a relationship with a 16-year-old girl, after which
his activities were restricted but no investigation was
carried nor was Bishop Magee informed.
The priest later eloped with a married woman, and
Monsignor O'Callaghan told that Commission that in
hindsight he 'should have gone straight to the gardaí.'
1523 Fr Moray: The Commission found that
procedure was not followed when a complaint was
made about deceased priest Fr Moray, in 1997 and
again in 2002.
Monsignor O'Callaghan told the Commission
reporting complaints about dead priests did not exist
until 2003 - the commission did not accept that.
The complaint about Fr Moray was made by 'Skyla',
who alleged that she and her brother (who later took
his own life) had been sexually abused by the priest.
The diocese provided help with counselling costs but
when a civil action began claimed it had 'no legal
liability.'
1521 The Government is to refer the Commission's
report to the Garda Ombudsman after it expressed
concern about the approach adapted by gardaí in
three cases.
The Garda Commissioner has appointed an
Assistant Commissioner to examine whether further
action can be taken against the abusers in the report.
1519 The report does not include a single
instance of contemporaneous reporting of abuse by
the abused person.
All were adults at the time of disclosure. In some
cases, the abuse was disclosed only when it became
public knowledge that others had been abused.
1513 Fr Calder: Gardaí were hampered in their
investigations by the failure of anyone to make a
formal complaint until 1998, and even then the
complaints related to adults not children.
The fact that the evidence of Garda John who was
the garda most closely connected to these events,
differed considerably from his written reports made
many years earlier about the age of particular
complainants is a cause of concern to the
Commission.
The Commission is also concerned about the failure
of Supt Murray to keep records of his conversations
with Monsignor O'Callaghan.
1507 Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has published
the Scheme of a Bill to make it a criminal offence for
anyone not to pass information on to Gardai about
possible sexual abuse of a child.
The Government has approved the drafting of the Bill
as a matter of priority. Drafting is already at an
advanced stage.
1504 The Diocese of Cloyne has paid for counselling
for six complainants. It made its first payment in 2007
and up to 2010 had made compensation payments to
a total of four people, with a number of other claims
being processed.
Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan, who was parish priest
in Mallow, dealt with complaints of child sexual abuse
during the period of the Commission's remit.
The Monsignor made payments for counselling from
the parish account and during the period 1996 to
2007 a total of €30,000 was paid from parish funds,
but was later reimbursed from the Diocesan 'child
protection fund'.
A local charitable trust made the payments to abuse
survivors because 'direct payment to complainants
might be construed as an admission of liability on the
part of the Diocese'.
The Diocese has contributed €12,000 to the
counselling service Faoiseamh which was setup up
by CORI.
1503 Although Bishop John Magee was aware of
concerns about a priest since 1997 and had a report
about his unsuitability for ministry, it was not until
2009 that he reported the matter to Rome.
The Report also criticises two gardaí for their
handling of complaints about this priest - named as
Father Calder.
It finds it regrettable that a Garda Superintendent did
not take a note of a meeting with a senior
churchman.
1502 There are 46 parishes in the Diocese of Cloyne,
in 1996 there were 163 priests in the diocese, 12 of
them came within the remit of the report.
1501 The Commission says in its report that the
Papal Nuncio replied to a request for information
relevant to its investigation by saying he was 'unable
to assist you in his matter'.
The Nunciature did not he said determine the
handling of cases of sexual abuse in Ireland and
would not be in a position to assist.
The Commission says that the Department of Health
claimed privilege over a number of documents
relevant to its investigation. The report notes that the
Diocese of Cloyne, in particular Archbishop Clifford
and Bishop Magee fully co-operated as did the
Gardai and HSE.
But it did note that in one case Gardai were unable to
assist because 'these complaints were investigated
but files cannot be found'.
1500 The Commission held 55 formal hearings
during its inquiry both at its offices and at other
locations around the country.
The Commission says its work in the Cloyne
Diocese cost €1.9m, which does not include third
party costs.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0713/303635-cloynetracker/

Child Abuse Scandal: How the

Irish Government protected the
Catholic Church

Excerpt from Beyond Belief: The Catholic Church

and the Child Abuse Scandal, by David Yallop
(Constable & Robinson, 2010). Reprinted with
permission from the author.
From Part 2: Ratzinger: Confronting the
Secret System
In April 2009, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin
publicly warned all Irish Catholics to brace
themselves for the publication of the Ryan Report in
May. This was a monumental investigation, named
after Chairperson Judge Sean Ryan, begun in 1999
and concluded ten years later. Entitled ‘The Report
of the Commission on Child Sexual Abuse’, it dealt
in great detail within its 2,600 pages with clerical
abuse reaching back to before the Second World
War. The Commission’s brief was to investigate all
forms of child abuse in Irish institutions for children.
The majority of allegations it investigated focused
upon the system operated in some sixty residential
‘Reformatory and Industrial Schools’ operated by
Catholic Church Orders, more often than not run by
the Christian Brothers.
The report should be made compulsory reading for
the wide range of apologists not only for the current
Pope, it is a truly shocking indictment. The report
establishes that the system within these schools
treated children ‘like prison inmates and slaves’
devoid of any legal rights. The report identified sub-
human behaviour that repeatedly records beatings
and rapes, subjection to naked beatings in public,
being forced to perform oral sex, and even beatings
after failed rape attempts by Christian Brothers.
Adjectives including ‘systemic’, ‘pervasive’,
‘chronic’, ‘excessive’, ‘arbitrary’ and ‘endemic’ are
used by the Commission to describe the
indescribable. Those apologists will search in vain
for evidence that what occurred was perpetrated by
a very small minority, although even one perverted
degenerate would be one too many. It is clear from
the details contained within this document that we
are confronted with a widespread evil that went on
year after year, decade after decade.
It is mystifying therefore that the late Karol Wojtyla
dismissed the clerical abuse of children as ‘an
American problem’. Anyone who shares that level of
self-delusion and therefore concludes, for example,
that what confronted the Ryan Commission was first
‘an Irish problem’ should reflect that wherever the
Christian Brothers went – be it Canada, Australia or
elsewhere – they brought with them their version of
Christianity, which included systematic brutality.
The report contains forty-three conclusions and
twenty recommendations. The former include:
Overall: physical and emotional abuse and neglect
were features of the institutions. Sexual abuse
occurred in many of them, particularly boys’
institutions. Schools were run in a severe
regimented manner that imposed unreasonable
and oppressive discipline on children and even
on staff.
Physical abuse: the Reformatory and Industrial
Schools depended on rigid control by means of
severe corporal punishment and fear of such
punishment, which permeated more of the
institutions and most of those run for boys.
 Children lived with the daily terror of not
knowing where the next beating was coming
from.
Sexual abuse: sexual abuse was endemic in boys’
institutions. The schools investigated revealed
a substantial level of sexual abuse of boys in
care that extended from improper touching and
fondling to rape with violence. Perpetrators of
abuse were able to operate undetected for long
periods at the core of institutions.
When confronted with evidence of sexual abuse,
the religious authorities’ response was to transfer
the offender to another location where, in many
instances, he was free to abuse again. Although
girls were subjected to predatory sexual abuse, it
was not systemic in girls’ schools. There is a belief
in some circles that this secret system of moving a
molester is a gambit that began in the 1980s, but
the long reach of this investigation, back to
testimony that is pre-Second World War, exposes
this canard. The evidence extends much further and
ranges from 1914 onwards.
Over 25,000 children attended these institutions.
Approximately 1,500 came forward with complaints
to the Commission. Doubtless that number would
have been far greater if others had lived to tell their
tale; still others did not testify for a variety of
reasons, ranging from shame to fear. The effect of
these abuses upon the children is there for the rest
of their lives. It was not easy for any of them to
testify to strangers; that would take extraordinary
courage. They talked of the neglect, the poor
standards of physical care, of the gnawing hunger
day after day, struggling to survive with minimal
food that was inedible and badly prepared. They
described the lack of heating in bleak rooms, and
the emotional as well as the physical abuse. Going
to the toilet would often be seized upon as an
opportunity for degradation and humiliation. They
recalled that the criticism was incessant, as was the
verbal abuse, which was invariably accompanied
with shouting of how worthless they were.
The Commission also established that successive
governments had conspired with the perpetrators.
The Department of Education inspectors were
‘fundamentally flawed and incapable of being
effective’. The department did not apply the
standards laid out in the rules and their own
guidelines when investigating complaints but
‘sought to protect and defend the religious
congregations and schools’. The department dealt
inadequately with complaints about sexual abuse,
‘which were generally dismissed or ignored’.
The Commission’s recommendations were limited
by the Irish Government to just two categories. In
short, the Irish taxpayer picked up the bill for the
costs of the inquiry and any compensation but
remained in ignorance of exactly who was to blame.
It was a situation that would endure because of
previous undertakings given to the Christian
Brothers, including the promise that there would be
no prosecutions even though the evidence of
criminal acts was overwhelming.
It had been intended that there would be a policy of
‘name and shame’, but that was blocked by a legal
challenge made by the Christian Brothers. The
Brothers sought and received permission to deal
with abusers anonymously. Thus, the report does
not state whether all abusers were members of
religious orders in charge of schools, or whether
external parties were involved. Notwithstanding the
straightjacket imposed on the Commission, the
report had a profound impact in Ireland and beyond.
But a sustained wailing and gnashing of teeth in the
face of such sustained criminal behaviour is
worthless unless at the end there is a measure of
justice for the victims. Without that there would be
little to show other than a pile of platitudes.
In the event ‘no naming and shaming’ was followed
by the revelation of a further twisting of the knife. An
‘indemnity deal’ had been signed between two
representatives of the Conference of Religious of
Ireland (CORI), an umbrella group representing 138
religious congregations, on behalf of eighteen
religious orders that had run the residential
institutions, and the then Minister of Education,
Michael Woods. It would not have been
unreasonable to expect that many of those
responsible for the acts condemned by the
Commission would end up in court, then in prison.
Instead, the deal that had been cut between the
government and CORI not only ensured immunity
and privacy, it went even further: the religious
orders were also indemnified from any legal action,
whereby any costs would now be met by the Irish
taxpayers in return for a transfer of property and
assets to the sum of €128 million. No
representatives of the victims had been involved in
any of these negotiations.
The sum of €128 million did not even cover the cost
of the Commission, leaving nothing to compensate
the victims. This deal remained secret until revealed
by the news media in January 2013. It had been
completed by a caretaker government at the time of
the 2012 election, on the last possible day of
business. As such the agreement had neither
Cabinet approval nor the benefit of a debate on the
issues within the Dáil. The overall cost to the Irish
taxpayer has been put at €1 billion.
This currently is what passes for justice in Ireland
for the victims of sexual and physical abuse. In
June 2009, Pope Benedict yet again demonstrated
that he inhabits a very rarefied area untouched by
reality. Talking to the Irish bishops Martin and
Brady, the Pope urged them:
To establish the truth of what has happened, ensure
that justice is done for all, put in place the measures
that will prevent these abuses happening again,
with a view to healing for survivors.
This meeting between Benedict and the two
bishops took place a month after the Ryan Report
had been published. The Pope’s appeal was
directed not just at the two men sitting before him
but to the entire Catholic Church of Ireland and to
its priests and nuns. Quite simply, he was asking
the Church to find a satisfactory solution. Many
priests within that Church would appear to have
concluded in the lights of the various clauses in the
‘indemnity deal’ that they already had a satisfactory
solution.
This was not and is not a problem confined to the
orphanages, schools of correction and institutions.
In Ireland there were wider lessons to be learned.
Even after the meticulous detail contained within the
Ryan Report was published the apologists
continued to deny the truth, doubtless motivated by
a sentiment shared by many within the Vatican and
other places ‘for the good of Mother Church’. They
hid behind a quiver of curious arguments: ‘This was
only a small minority of priests … These children
who were allegedly abused, well nothing has been
proved in court … They were all ne’er do wells, part
of the criminal class … this survey only looked at
children being held in residential institutions and
industrial schools.’ That last argument had
particular resonance for the traditional Catholic.
‘Take a survey of the Dublin Archdiocese and you
will get a quite different picture’, went the argument.
Sometimes life is well written.
Next up for consideration was the Murphy Report,
again named after its Chairperson, Judge Yvonne
Murphy, with the mandate to report on the handling
by Church and State authorities of a representative
sample of allegations and suspicions of child sexual
abuse against clerics operating under the aegis of
the Archdiocese of Dublin over the period 1975 to
2004.
Judge Murphy and her Commission were appointed
in November 2005; their report was published in
November 2009. Publication was delayed for some
six months by the government, and was only
eventually released because the Irish High Court
ruled that it should be. At the eleventh hour, the
Irish Government, who where of course fully aware
of the report’s contents, asked the Court to further
delay publication. The Court declined the
application.
The Murphy Commission was working to a much
smaller compass than the Ryan Report. Its time-
frame was confined to twenty-nine years, and the
representative sample of cases investigated was
confined to the activities of forty-six priests. The
report’s introduction couched in calm neutral
language calmly reveals quite shocking facts.
It is important in the Commission’s view not to
equate the number of complaints with the actual
instances of child sexual abuse. While a significant
number of priests against whom allegations were
made admitted child sexual abuse, some denied it.
Of those investigated by the Commission, one
priest admitted to abusing over 100 children, while
another accepted that he had abused on a
fortnightly basis during the currency of his ministry
which lasted over 25 years [a minimum of 650
separate sexual acts of abuse on children]. The
total number of documented complaints recorded
against those two priests is just over seventy. In
another case, there is only one complaint but the
priest has admitted abusing at least six other
children.
Officials of the Archdiocese of Dublin conveyed to
the Commission that the various cases that had
come to light over the previous thirty-five years had
left the Church, in common with the general public,
taken by surprise by the volume of the revelations
… Church authorities have repeatedly claimed to
have been, prior to the late 1990s, on a “learning
curve” in relation to the matter. Having completed
its investigation, the Commission does not accept
the truth of such claims and assertions.
Yet again, the spectre of suppression of the truth for
the good of Mother Church raises its head.
The Dublin Archdiocese’s pre-occupations in
dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least
until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of
secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of
the reputation of the Church and the preservation of
its assets. All other considerations, including the
welfare of children and justice for victims, were
subordinated to these priorities. The Archdiocese
did not implement its own canon law rules and did
its best to avoid any application of the law of the
State.
Not much comfort for the apologists is to be found
in those conclusions. Indeed, as can be seen,
although the area of investigations differed vastly
from Justice Ryan’s epic investigation of industrial
schools and orphanages, the evidence and the
conclusions to be drawn from the respective reports
have an overwhelming symmetry. As for the
‘learning curve’ pleading of ignorance, Archbishop
McQuaid was dealing with such cases in the 1950s
and 1960s. There have been bishops all over the
world who have used this defence during the past
thirty years. Any adult male – be he a bishop or a
man in any other walk of life – who did not know
long before this scandal became public knowledge
that grown men having sex with children is wrong
and insidiously harmful to children is either an idiot
or a liar or both.
Excerpted from Beyond Belief by David Yallop.
Copyright © 2010, 2013 by David Yallop. All rights
reserved.
David Yallop is widely considered to be the
world’s leading investigative writer. In the
course of his career, he has met with some of
the world’s most powerful and most dangerous
men, often he has uncovered truths that they
had wanted to keep buried. He is the author of
amongst others, In God’s Name, The Power and
the Glory, and Beyond Belief.
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2013/05/child-abuse-scandal-how-the-irish-government-
protected-the-catholic-church/

This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuyZ90xBpw

nly Father Flanagan of Boys

Town shouted stop to child
abuse in Ireland
John Fay

@AmericanIreland

May 15, 2018

Father Edward Flanagan sings carols with some of the children at
Boys Town.
Today we remember the rebellious and
kind Monsignor Edward Joseph Flanagan,
founder of Boys Town, Nebraska, who was
born in Leabeg, County Roscommon on this
day (July 13) 1886.
Monsignor Edward Joseph Flanagan, founder of Boys
Town made famous by the Spencer Tracy movie
"Boys Town," was a lone voice in condemning
Ireland’s industrial schools back in the 1940s and the
treatment afforded to orphans and those born outside
marriage generally. He was viciously castigated by
the Irish Church and Irish government for doing so.
His treatment at the hands of clergy and politicians makes
it very clear both powerful arms of the state were
determined to stick to secrets and lies and cover-ups
when it came to the mistreatment of youths and babies.
When he arrived back in America after a 1946 trip to
Ireland he let it be known he was appalled by the abuse of
children in the institutions he had visited. Though he
mainly focused on the industrial schools, which worked
young children to the bone, he widely criticized the entire
range of Catholic institutions that dealt so viciously with
the most vulnerable of Irish children.

4
A plaque dedicated to the 796 infants believed to be buried at Tuam.

When he came back to America Flanagan, addressing the

Irish clergy and political leaders, said: "What you need
over there is to have someone shake you loose from your
smugness and satisfaction and set an example by
punishing those who are guilty of cruelty, ignorance, and
neglect of their duties in high places . . . I wonder what
God's judgment will be with reference to those who hold
the deposit of faith and who fail in their God-given
stewardship of little children."

However, his words fell on stony ground. He wasn't simply

ignored. He was taken to pieces by the Irish
establishment. The then-Minister for Justice Gerald
Boland said in the Dáil (Ireland's parliament) that he was
“not disposed to take any notice of what Monsignor
Flanagan said while he was in this country because his
statements were so exaggerated that I did not think people
would attach any importance to them.”
Flanagan was a devout Catholic, a man who Catholics
and non-Catholics worldwide had deemed a hero. He was
the Mother Theresa of his day.
Flanagan was born on July 13, 1886, in the townland of
Leabeg, County Roscommon, to John (a herdsman) and
Honoria Flanagan. In 1904, he immigrated to the United
States.
Unlike many others, Flanagan became a priest after
he had arrived in America. He was ordained in 1912.
In 1917 he was living and working in Omaha,
Nebraska, when he hit upon the idea of a "boy’s
town," which would offer education and a home for
the poor and wayward boys of Omaha.
4
Father Flanagan photographed with some children at Boys Town.

However, demand for the service was so great that he

soon had to find bigger premises. Boys Town, built on a
farm 10 miles from Omaha, was the result.
The center was open to all. There were no fences to stop
the boys from leaving. Fr. Flanagan said he was “not
building a prison."
"This is a home," he said. "You do not wall in members of
your own family.”
Boys Town eventually became so well-known – and so
well-respected – that Hollywood and the U.S. President
came calling. Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney starred
in the 1938 movie "Boys Town," and it made a national
hero out of Fr. Flanagan. He was internationally renowned
as “the world’s most foremost expert on boys’ training and
youth care.”
When World War II ended in 1945, President Truman
asked Flanagan to tour Asia and Europe, to see what
could be done for the many children orphaned and
made homeless by the war.

4
Father Flanagan surrounded by World War II troops.

Flanagan decided to return to the land of his birth in 1946

to visit his family and to visit the “so-called training
schools" run by the Christian Brothers to see if they were
"a success or failure.”
The success of the film "Boys Town" meant Flanagan was
treated like a celebrity upon his arrival. His visit was noted
by the Irish Independent, which said that Flanagan had
succeeded “against overwhelming odds,” spurred on by
the “simple slogan that 'There is no such thing as a bad
boy.'”
But Flanagan was unhappy with what he found in
Ireland. He was dismayed at the state of Ireland's
reform schools and blasted them as “a scandal, un-
Christ-like, and wrong.” And he said the Christian
Brothers, founded by Edmund Rice, had lost their
way.

Speaking to a large audience at a public lecture in Cork’s Savoy Cinema

he said, "You are the people who permit your children and the children
of your communities to go into these institutions of punishment. You
can do something about it." He called Ireland’s penal institutions "a
disgrace to the nation," and later said "I do not believe that a child can
be reformed by lock and key and bars, or that fear can ever develop a
child’s character."

Despite that, the Irish church and the Irish government felt
comfortable ignoring Fr. Flanagan, ignoring the fact that he was
considered to be an expert in the matter of providing for the education
and upbringing of boys who were otherwise considered to be “lost
causes.” Again, his efforts fell on stony ground.

What was it about the Irish church and the Irish government that made
them so insular that they felt comfortable dismissing someone of Fr.
Flanagan's stature? Even though Fr. Flanagan was a popular hero to
many Irish people, his words had no sway with those in authority,
whether in the government or the church.

And, once those who endorsed the industrial school model survived Fr.
Flanagan's broadsides, they must have known that no one would
challenge them again. They were right, for 50 years anyway.
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/father-flanagan-boys-town-child-abuse-ireland

Ex-garda lifts lid on

decades of child abuse in
Gaeltacht
New book says clergy ignored sex crimes
1
Eugene Greene: Former priest is due for release in December

Anita Guidera
April 4 2008
A retired garda has called for an independent inquiry into four decades of
child sexual abuse in a remote corner of the Gaeltacht.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, dozens of children were being abused by four
paedophiles in the area, which stretched from Gortahork, on the north
Donegal coast, south to Leitermacaward and Glenties, and west to Annagry
and Kincasslagh.

In a shocking new book, 'Breaking the Silence', former garda Martin Ridge,
who investigated the horrific cases of priest Eugene Greene and teacher Denis
McGinley, has accused the Catholic Church of turning a blind eye on the
decades of devastation.
"An inquiry would show that members of the clergy had to know what was
going on. We know they were made aware of it," he said.

He added that the hurt in the communities was being compounded by the
release and pending release of the perpetrators.

Greene, who violently abused altar boys in different parishes for 17 years, was
sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment in 2000 and is due for release in
December.

In 2002, McGinley, who Mr Ridge said abused "a conveyor belt of victims",
was sentenced to 30 months on 21 sample charges and has since been
released.

A third man -- who was never named -- abused young boys in the 1970s and
1980s in the Annagry area. He received a 12-year sentence in September 1999
and is due for release in August.

And Jimmy O'Donnell, who used his dwarf stature to gain the trust of the local
community in Kincasslagh, was sentenced to four years on 26 sample counts
of abuse. He was released last December.

Mr Ridge, who retired from the Garda Siochana in 2002, spent the last five
years of his career working with colleague Detective John Dooley exposing
four decades of abuse.

The book, which will be launched tonight, details the painstaking work carried
out by the gardai in tracking down and building the confidence of scores of
abuse victims.

Suicide

He said that many were addicted to alcohol and drugs and had broken
relationships and marriages. There was also evidence that some victims had
died by suicide.

But the book also reveals complaints that went unheard and unheeded,
leaving the perpetrators free to abuse with impunity for decades.

Ridge said an inquiry would also reveal church documents which they were
unable to access at the time.

In 1976, a complaint was made to another priest in Gortahork about Greene.

He disappeared for a period of time but returned, to the surprise of the family,
who were told that he would not "interfere" with their son again. But the
abuse continued.

The current bishop, Dr Philip Boyce,said in a television documentary that he

was first made aware of an allegation against Greene in 1998.
In the case of McGinley, a parent complained to a local curate in June 1984.
McGinley was teaching again that September and continued to abuse boys in
the school for 11 years.

https://www.independent
.ie/irish-news/exgarda-
lifts-lid-on-decades-of-
child-abuse-in-gaeltacht-
26443832.html
Irish child abuse: The Ryan Report
cover-up
By Steve James
26 May 2009
For all the details of sadistic physical, sexual, emotional abuse,
neglect and brutalisation of children in Ireland’s industrial school
system, the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse
(CICA) is a cover up. Nine years of hearings, the probing of
hundreds of childhood hells, have resulted in a huge report—five
volumes and 3,000 pages—which will not lead to the prosecution
of those individually or collectively guilty of crimes against
thousands of children.
Neither has political responsibility been attributed. The report by
Judge Sean Ryan continues to obscure the role of the Catholic
Church, which is an essential element of the Irish state, and
successive governments in operating a cruel workhouse system
through which at least 170,000 children passed through in the
middle decades of the twentieth century.
Even the publication of the report was characterised by official
arrogance, contempt and indifference to former inmates who
braved hearings and interviews, including cross examination by
representatives of the religious orders in whose schools they were
incarcerated and brutalised. Paddy Doyle, wheelchair bound,
attempted to attend publication of the report last week in the
Conrad Hotel, Dublin and was confronted by locked doors, PR and
security men. When other victims of abuse managed to force their
way into the hearing, police were called.
Co-ordinator of the campaign group Survivors of Child Abuse,
John Kelly, told the press from the steps of the hotel, “There is
nothing by way of justice in any means significant in this report,
nothing...We were encouraged by this commission and by the
former Taoiseach to open our wounds. We did this and they’ve
been left gaping open.”
The Irish state has consistently refused to take any real action
against the perpetrators. This is not only because it is complicit, by
its silence, in the abuses. More fundamentally, it was dependent
upon the Catholic Church to force submission onto numerous poor
children exploited as cheap labour in its industrial school system.

The report was only commissioned in 1999 following decades in

which the appalling conditions in the industrial religious schools
were common knowledge. From as early as 1961 news
broadcasts, films, plays and countless personal experiences led to
numerous complaints being filed against schools. Yet only in 1999
did then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern commission the CICA inquiry
under Judge Mary Laffoy. Laffoy published interim reports and
reportedly won respect from the survivor groups, but found her
investigations hampered by the Department of Education and the
Church. Laffoy resigned in 2003 and Judge Sean Ryan was
appointed.
In 2004, Ryan struck a deal to ensure continued participation from
the religious orders, agreeing not to name those accused of abuse.
The hundreds of religious brothers, nuns and lay persons accused
of abuse have been given pseudonyms in the CICA report. Only
those previously convicted of child abuse are named. Another deal
in 2002 limited the financial liability of the orders to compensation
claims to a maximum of €128 million.
The CICA report nevertheless does make clear the horrifying
crimes of the child-care system. Dealing mainly with the period
between 1930 and 1970, the commission interviewed 1,090 former
residents of 216 schools, reformatories and day schools—90
percent of whom said they had been physically abused and over
500 sexually abused.
Compiling other information from the Department of Education, the
Vatican and the schools themselves, the commission concluded
that some 800 individuals were identified as having physically or
sexually abused children in their care.
Nothing more clearly condemns the political system that emerged
from the partition of Ireland, the accommodation reached between
the Irish bourgeoisie, the Catholic Church, and the former
imperialist master in Britain, than the protracted existence of a
children’s gulag intended to provide cheap pliant, unskilled, largely
agricultural, Catholic labour. Ireland maintained the industrial
school system, run by various Catholic, orders until the 1970s.
Journalist Bruce Arnold wrote in the Irish Independent, “The report
contains nothing about the steady flow of reform in the British
system of childcare, begun by Winston Churchill when he was
Home Secretary and continued throughout the grim period in
which Tomas Derrig was our Minister for Education. From 1932,
Derrig placed an iron fist on top of the smouldering drum of
industrial school illegality and did nothing at all. Irregularly, cases
came up in the court, the press and in the Dail. They cried out for
investigation. Derrig always refused. Investigation was generally
refused by other ministers. Nothing is said of this in the report.”
Arnold also noted that the report contains no serious assessment
of the role of the District Courts, from which children were
committed to the schools. The young people forced into the
system—some 1.2 percent of the childhood population between
1936 and 1970—were from the poorest backgrounds. At any time
between 5,000 and 6,000 were held in around 50 or so boarding
institutions.
Children would be referred by the courts for begging, having no
visible means of subsistence, no obvious guardian, being in the
charge of parents who were in prison, or had criminal or otherwise
dubious reputations. Others were referred for petty offences
including non-attendance at school. Young girls who had been
raped were sent to reformatories.
Most of the industrial schools held around 250 children. The
largest, Artane near Dublin, held around 800. They were
universally characterised by violence, fear, neglect, hunger, poor
clothing, cold and miserable conditions, bullying, poor education,
emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
The greatest numbers of industrial schools were run by the
Christian Brothers, which opened its first school in Dublin in 1870
and expanded operations to the UK, Australia, Canada, Gibraltar,
India and the United States and still operates in 26 countries.
The Christian Brothers recruited young, often badly educated men
from the age of 14 onwards, who took permanent vows of chastity
and silence from the age of 25. They were entirely untrained,
learning only by the primitive and brutal practice of their elders.
The report notes, “The Christian Brothers became a powerful and
dominant organisation in the State and were responsible for
providing primary and post primary education to the majority of
Catholic boys in the country.”
Industrial Schools were funded on a per-capita basis, encouraging
the orders to cram in as many children as possible. The section on
Artane notes reasons for committal between 1940 and 1969: 1,374
children were committed for “improper guardianship”, 1,045 for bad
school attendance, 720 for destitution, 227 for being homeless,
220 for larceny, 90 for other crimes.
These children were plunged into a medieval environment, with the
report compiling a vast litany of atrocities. A few examples are
enough.
A letter from the head of the school warns Brother Beaufort, “You
are passionate in your dealings with the boys. In fact at times you
show so little control of your temper that you are in danger of
inflicting serious bodily harm on the boys by your manner of
correcting them.”
One victim was picked up and thrown around a class by Brother
Beaufort, knocked unconscious, and was only saved by the
intervention of another Brother. The child suffered lacerations,
broken teeth, eye and neck injuries.
All the staff carried leather straps which were freely used on
children. A Brother Oliver repeatedly beat children with particular
violence. One victim reported, “I was running trying to get away
from him. He hit me, it didn’t matter where, legs, back, head,
anywhere...”
Oliver forced one 12-year-old child to lick excrement from his
shoes.
Instruments of punishment included rubber from a pram wheel,
hurley sticks, hurley balls, fists, finger nails and fan belts. One
child’s hand was held in boiling water. Boys were repeated pulled
around by the hair, punched, strapped for crimes such as being left
handed, being slow, tearing a blanket, having worn out shoes.
Another inmate commented, “You don’t seem to understand, the
place was built on terror, regular beatings were just accepted.
What you’re hearing about is the bad ones, but we accepted as
normal run of the mill from the minute you got up, that some time
in that day you would get beaten.”
Sexual abuse was rife. Artane’s staff hosted a number of Brothers
who had repeatedly been warned for “embracing and fondling”
boys. Two such paedophiles went on to be hung for child murder
in Canada. Others accused of rape, beat or bribed their victims
into silence. Accused Brothers were invariably excused, lightly
admonished or, typically, moved to other institutions where they
were free to continue abusing children for decades.
The children provided cheap labour for running the institutions. A
1957 report by the Department of Education complained, “These
lads really make the running of Artane possible yet in all the
apartments devoted to the farm and the trades there is not a single
toilet or wash-basin for these boys. They come into their meals in a
shocking condition, hands, faces and clothes are covered with the
grime of the trades, boots, stockings and portions of the trousers
often soaking from working in the cowhouse or the manure pit.”
St Vincent’s Industrial School, Goldenbridge featured in two
broadcasts, “Dear Daughter” and “States of Fear”, which
undermined the official silence on the schools. Run by the Sisters
of Mercy, young girls were held in conditions of neglect and near
starvation, subject to repeated beatings. One victim summed up
the lasting impact of their experience. Their comments could apply
to the entire system.
“The screaming of children, the screaming of children will stay with
me for the rest of my life about Goldenbridge. I still hear it, I still
haven’t recovered from that. Children crying and screaming, it was
just endless, it never never stopped for years in that place.”
The report is available from here:
http://www.childabusecommission.com/rpt/
Official Ireland remains
in denial about its child
abuse legacy
Updated / Tuesday, 13 Feb 2018

"For decades, the State failed to implement child protection

frameworks in national schools"

By Conor O'Mahony
UCC

Opinion: Ireland's long history of failing to

protect vulnerable children continues in the
shape of the state's efforts to fight survivors of
abuse tooth and nail
2017 was another bad year in Ireland’s long history
of failing to protect vulnerable children. The "Grace"
case involved a young woman with intellectual
disabilities who was left in the care of a foster family
for 20 years despite physical abuse, gross neglect
and possible sexual abuse. This led to the publication
of two separate reports, the establishment of a
Commission of investigation and a settlement of €6.3
million in compensation. The revelations of babies
buried in a mass grave in Tuam has been subsumed
into a separate Commission of Investigation
examining Mother and Baby Homes.
It is only right that significant, if belated, efforts are
being made at bringing about justice in these cases.
But other worthy victims of Ireland’s systemic failure
to protect children are being denied any form of
justice.
For decades, the State failed to implement child
protection frameworks in national schools. The
European Court of Human Rights has already ruled
that this was partly to blame for abuse in those
schools, but the State continues to fight survivors of
abuse tooth and nail.

12:03
From RTÉ Radio One's This Week, Colm Ó
Mongáin reports on the independent report
commissioned by the HSE into the funding of the
care of the vulnerable young woman known as
Grace
That ruling occurred in the Louise O’Keeffe case in
2014. Louise was a pupil in Dunderrow National
School and was one of 21 girls abused by the school
principal, Leo Hickey, on almost 400 occasions in the
early 1970s. When a parent complained, Hickey
resigned his post and took up another in Ballincollig,
where he taught for another twenty years. In
February 2017, Hickey was convicted of fresh sex
abuse charges in Ballincollig between November
1991 and June 1992.
All of this occurred without so much as an eyebrow
being raised in the Department of Education. A
guidance note issued by the department instructed
schools to direct complaints to school managers –
i.e. parish priests – with no department involvement
(see para 168 of the judgment). The department had
a laissez faire approach to National Schools, with a
hands-off inspection regime and a "see no evil, hear
no evil" attitude to child abuse.
The risk of such abuse was clear to see. As early as
1931, the Carrigan Report had identified "an alarming
amount of sexual crime increasing yearly, a feature of
which was the large number of cases of criminal
interference with girls and children from 16 years
downwards". On advice from the Department of
Justice, the Carrigan Report was never published.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2014
that State was or ought to have been aware of the
risk of abuse and should have taken reasonable
measures to prevent it.
Only seven compensation payments have been
made to date, even though there are 360 known
victims.
The O’Keeffe judgment ought to have been a
watershed moment in which the State’s role in
facilitating heinous sex crimes against pupils in
national schools was fully acknowledged and
accepted. Instead, the State immediately went into
damage limitation mode. Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s
apology to Louise O’Keeffe pointedly referred to
children "in the location where she was", failing to
acknowledge that the judgment concerned a
systemic failure to supervise child protection in
national schools rather than a specific failure to
respond to a complaint in Dunderrow.
This pattern continued when a redress scheme was
established for victims of sexual abuse in national
schools as part of the State’s implementation of the
judgment. The scheme limited redress to those
victims who could establish that their abuse had
occurred in the aftermath of a prior complaint which
had not been acted upon.
First, this distorts the true basis of liability in the
O’Keeffe judgment. As the Court observed (at para
168 of its judgment), the State’s obligations were "not
fulfilled when the Irish State … continued to entrust
the management of the primary education of the vast
majority of young Irish children to non-State actors
(national schools), without putting in place any
mechanism of effective State control against the risks
of such abuse occurring". The emphasis was on risk
and the need for preventive measures, not on
investigation of actual abuse. To say otherwise is
equivalent to saying that a search party is an
adequate substitute for a stable door.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission
and the Child Law Clinic at UCC have both made
submissions to the Council of Europe on this point,
and it has been further criticised by the Ombudsman
for Children.
Second, the requirement of proving that a prior
complaint had been made ignores reality. Although
Leo Hickey abused over 20 children, only one of
them complained at the time. When his latest victim
was asked by defence counsel if he had spent 25
years making up his allegation of abuse, he replied
that he had spent 25 years blocking it out.
The fact is that children didn’t complain of abuse. On
the rare occasions when they did, how can they
prove it decades later? And why is the original
complainant, along with any children abused prior to
the complaint, any less worthy of redress?
The emphasis was on risk and the need for
preventive measures, not on investigation of actual
abuse
As seen in the State’s latest action plan, only seven
compensation payments have been made to date,
even though there are 360 known victims.
That Hickey has been convicted of abusing in a
separate school highlights – yet again – the effect of
the State’s wilful ignorance of matters of child
protection in National Schools. The State remains in
denial about this, providing token redress while
fighting other victims in the courts and threatening to
pursue them for costs.
It is long past time for the State to acknowledge its
failures in a meaningful way by providing redress to
the victims in an inclusive manner. If this does not
happen, then it is entirely possible that another
Louise O’Keeffe will come along and the State will
once more be shamed before the European Court of
Human Rights.
Dr Conor O’Mahony is a deputy director of the Child Law Clinic at UCC which
supported Louise O’Keeffe’s legal team during her application to the European Court
of Human Rights, and is currently providing support to the legal teams of other victims
of abuse in national schools.
The views expressed here are those of the author
and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2018/0213/940369-official-ireland-remains-in-denial-about-its-child-abuse-legacy/

Communication from Ireland concerning the case of O'KEEFFE v. Ireland State’s

latest action plan, only seven compensation payments have been made to date, even
though there are 360 known victims. 29th January 2018

https://rm.coe.int/1680782103

Case of O'Keeffe v. Ireland distorts the true basis of liability in the O’Keeffe
judgment. As the Court observed (at para 168 of its judgment), the State’s
obligations were "not fulfilled when the Irish State …

https://rm.coe.int/16805a32bb
28 July, 2015- Government
approves approach for those who
discontinued their legal
proceedings but who come within
the terms of the ECtHR Judgment in
Louise O’Keeffe
Minister O’Sullivan announced that the Government approved her proposal to offer ex-
gratia payments to those who initiated legal proceedings in cases of school child sexual
abuse against the State but who subsequently discontinued their claims against the State
where the circumstances of the claims come within the terms of the European Court of
Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment and where the claims were not statute barred prior to the
proceedings being discontinued.
The State Claims Agency has reviewed its case files and those of the Chief State Solicitor’s
Office and some 210 potential school child sexual abuse cases have been identified. To be
eligible for an ex-gratia payment survivors will have to establish that:

• They had instituted legal proceedings against the Minister for

Education in respect of school child sexual abuse and that those
proceedings were not barred under the Statute of Limitations prior to
their being discontinued; and
• They were sexually abused while at school by a primary or post-
primary school employee in respect of whom there was a prior
complaint of sexual abuse to the school authority (or a school authority
in which the employee had previously worked) prior to the issue of the
Department of Education child protection guidelines to primary and
post-primary schools in 1991/92.
Those who consider that they meet the criteria should contact the State Claims Agency and
provide supporting evidence. Where there is a disagreement with the State Claims Agency
as to whether the criteria are satisfied, the application may be reviewed by an independent
assessor.
Where the State Claims Agency or independent assessor is satisfied that the criteria are met,
the Department of Education and Skills will offer an ex-gratia payment up to a maximum of
€84,000 plus a specified amount for costs to the survivor. This figure of €84,000 reflects the
amount Ms O’Keeffe received from the State including the award from the Criminal Inquiries
Compensation Tribunal and the amount the ECtHR decided the State should pay to her.
As this litigation was at various stages of progression and all of the cases within this category
were discontinued against the State prior to a Court hearing, it is not possible to determine
the number of survivors who are likely to satisfy the qualifying criteria for an ex-gratia
payment. It is expected that there will be cases that will not satisfy the criteria.
Minister O’Sullivan said: “I am pleased that the Government has agreed to my proposal to
treat those survivors who discontinued their proceedings in a similar fashion to those
survivors whose cases are continuing against the State. While there is no legal obligation on
the State to address the situation of these survivors, I believe that the approach adopted is
fair and balanced in addressing the position of these survivors.”
As with the current and future litigation, the Minister said that in making these ex-gratia offers
the State is not covering the liability of the perpetrators, school patrons or other Co-
Defendants. In the O’Keeffe case, no claim was made against the school manager or
patron.
Similarly, these arrangements only concern those cases of school child sexual abuse where
there was a prior complaint about the teacher concerned to school authorities as these were
the circumstances on which the ECtHR judgment was based. None of the current child
protection architecture applying to schools was in place in 1973, when Louise O’Keeffe
suffered horrendous sexual abuse.
Minister O’Sullivan said: “There was a complaint to the school authorities in Ms O’Keeffe’s
case which was not acted upon. The measures being taken are in response to the ECtHR
judgment that the State failed in its Convention obligations to have effective mechanisms for
the detection and reporting of child sexual abuse in the early 1970s when Ms O’Keeffe was
abused.”
The Minister re-iterated her apology to all those who were sexually abused as school children
for the horrific abuse which was inflicted upon them, and for our collective failure to protect
them.
She welcomed the recent passing of the Teaching Council (Amendment) Bill, 2015 by both
Houses of the Oireachtas, which introduces further additional measures to enhance child
protection in the education sector and confirmed her commitment to continuing collaboration
with her Cabinet colleagues to ensure effective responsive systems of child protection both in
schools and more generally.
https://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Press-Releases/2015-Press-Releases/PR-
%202015-%2007-%2028.html

An updated report on the State’s implementation of the ECtHR judgment is being lodged with
the Council of Europe and is available on the Department’s website-
http://www.education.ie/en/Learners/Information/Former-Residents-of-Industrial-
Schools/Updated-Action-Plan-July-2015.pdf

Mandatory Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse – IAHIP

A Report by Brian Howlett on the IAHIP Information Day held on 23 March 1996

These are personal reflections on a well-attended Information and Discussion Day held
on 23 March 1996 for members of the Irish Association for Humanistic and Integrative
Psychotherapy (IAHIP). The event was chaired by Barbara Fitzgerald, the new
Chairperson of IAHIP, and had been arranged so that IAHIP psychotherapists could be
consulted on what response, if any, IAHIP should make to Putting Children First, the
Government’s Discussion Document on the mandatory reporting of child abuse,
published in February 1996. The day included the provision of information from social
work and legal specialists (Kieran McGrath and John Collins respectively), small group
discussions on the main questions and issues that the topic raises for psychotherapists,
reports and recommendations from those small groups and some general conclusions
and agreement for further action.

By the end of a very useful and productive day, my personal reckoning is that general
agreement had been given as follows:
1. The IAHIP would submit a response to the Department of Health
on Putting Children First. A small committee from among those present
was appointed to prepare and submit that response.
2. That, at least for the present, the response would confine itself to
current child sexual abuse and would endeavour to reflect such views
from the group reports as had enjoyed a reasonable degree of
consensus.
3. That whether or not mandatory reporting is introduced,
psychotherapists within IAHIP are bound by their own Code of Ethics to
put the protection of children currently at risk above all other
considerations and interests.
4. That IAHIP would want to support any childcare system that is able to
protect children, facilitate rehabilitation and minimise or reduce future
abuse. If mandatory reporting is the best way to support such a
childcare system, then IAHIP would endorse its introduction.
5. That mandatory reporting should not be introduced unless all appro-
priate childcare services are properly in place and in a position to act
effectively, not only in immediate investigative work but also in the pro-
vision of on-going support and therapeutic services for child victims,
perpetrators and the families affected.
6. That IAHIP would want the profession of psychotherapy to be of one
mind on this subject and on the role of psychotherapists in whatever
statutory provisions are made for the care of children. To this end, the
Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP) will be consulted before the IAHIP
response is submitted and consideration will also be given to the need,
whether or not mandatory reporting is introduced, of establishing
guidelines and advice facilities for psychotherapists generally who are
faced in their work with the question of reporting actual or suspected
child sexual abuse.
As a practitioner with limited professional experience of working with minors, and no
experience with clients reporting current sexual abuse, the day was a remarkable eye-
opener for me. While I was aware of the enormity of the problem of child abuse,
particularly sexual abuse, I had not appreciated how complex and difficult are the
problems it poses, in regard to reporting, for professionals working in the field of
childcare, particularly for those in psychotherapeutic and counselling services. It may be
of help to readers, and a stimulus to further debate in the pages of Inside Out, if I outline
a few of the issues that people had to face on that Information Day. In fairness to the
authors of the Government’s Discussion Document, they too acknowledged in their
document the existence of issues such as these and they did so, I believe, in a very fair
and open-minded way. The issues that follow are my own selection from those that arose
at the Information Day, and I alone am responsible for the opinions and comments that
go with them.

1. Could mandatory reporting undermine the aims of psychotherapy and

counselling, prevent victims or others from seeking therapeutic help and thus
drive the problem of child sexual abuse further underground?
So strongly are the concepts of trust and confidentiality held as indispensable elements
in the therapeutic relationship that any putting aside of them must be on grounds that
demonstrably outweigh the potential loss of these therapeutic values. Those who fear to
report should recall that the IAHIP code of ethics already requires reporting where, if the
psychotherapist does not report, a child or other children would be left in further danger of
sexual abuse. This ethical stance gives the psychotherapist freedom and discretion to
consider with the client, assuming the client to be the victim, (or, as the case may be,
with parents/guardians) how, when and by whom reporting should take place. For many
clients, revealing sex abuse to the therapist may be the first step on a vital path towards
acknowledging what has happened to them and retaking ownership of their lives and
responsibility for dismantling the secrecy and concealment that can be so endemic to
sexual abuse. The real danger for the client-therapist relationship would be a mandatory
reporting code that left the therapist with no such scope for the sensitive management of
reporting.

Another danger associated with mandatory reporting, and one that would certainly drive
sex abuse problems underground, is that of a code that might put more emphasis on
punishment than on cure. I believe in a childcare system that, subject to the protection of
children at risk, will bend all its energies into rehabilitating the perpetrator, achieved, if at
all possible, outside the legal system. Where it is necessary to prosecute, then I would
like to see introduced – as I would also for other family law actions – a non-adversarial
system of legal proceedings.

It is also probably true to say that the Kilkenny Incest case, heard in early 1993, and the
subsequent Investigation headed by Judge Catherine McGuinness, along with the many
well-publicised cases of clerical sexual abuse of children and the recent Report of the
Irish Catholic Bishops’ Advisory Committee on Child Sexual Abuse by Priests and
Religious will have done much to gain public acceptance of the idea of a legal obligation
being imposed on professionals – and perhaps on citizens too – to report child sexual
abuse. The statistics for the reporting of child abuse (including sexual abuse), all done in
the absence of a mandatory code, speak for themselves: in 1984 the total number of
cases reported to Health Boards amounted to just under 550; by 1994 that figure had
grown to over 4,600, the major increases having started in 1988, just after the
Department of Health had published its Child Abuse Guidelines, providing guidance
generally for personnel working with children, and particularly for Health and Social
Service agencies, on the identification, investigation and management of child abuse.

2. If mandatory reporting is introduced, will psychotherapists and counsellors be

included among the ‘designated professionals’ obliged to report? Which is in the
better interests of our profession – to be included or not to be?

There have been two major reports in Ireland on child sexual abuse, the Law Reform
Commission Report (1990) and the Report of the Kilkenny Incest Investigation Team
(1993). While both reports recommended mandatory reporting, they differed, inter alia, on
who should be covered by the legal obligation to report. Neither of them, however,
specifically named psychotherapists and counsellors as people to be mandated. In most
countries where mandated reporters have been listed, the list includes mental health
professionals such as psychologists, therapists and counsellors. It seems likely,
therefore, that if mandatory reporting is introduced, those mandated to report, i.e.
designated professionals, will include psychotherapists and counsellors.

Will that be in the better interests of the profession and the clients we serve? It can be
argued that since our code of ethics already obliges us to report where we become aware
of children currently at risk of sexual abuse, there is no need to bind us to a mandatory
code, particularly if such a code were crude or simplistic in its application. By that I mean
a code that might require automatic reporting, whether or not the abuse had already been
reported, whether or not a prosecution had already taken place and/or adequate remedial
action had already been taken to prevent further abuse; or whether there were
circumstances in which a report would not be in the child’s best interests.

On the other hand, it can be argued that psychotherapists and counsellors would be
better protected if reporting were mandatory. There would be much greater legal
protection against charges of breach of confidentiality or defamation. We would be freer
to report risks affecting non-clients, to whom (strictly speaking) we do not owe a ‘duty of
care’. Our task would be made simpler in cases where clients are resistant to a report
being made or are reluctant to take on reporting responsibilities themselves.

The overriding consideration on the question of reporting is the protection of children at

risk. Whether members of our profession should act from within a self-regulated voluntary
code or out of legal obligation depends on how sensitive a mandatory code can be to the
complex and varied needs of victims and perpetrators.

3. Are there alternatives to mandatory reporting?

From what emerged at the Information Day, it appears that there are. While a number of
European countries, including France and Italy, do have mandatory reporting systems in
operation, others – notably the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany – have voluntary
reporting systems in place. In the Netherlands there exists a Bureau of Confidential
Doctors, and anyone suspecting that a child is being abused can contact them for advice
on how to handle the situation or to refer the case to professionals, whereupon the
confidential doctor verifies the request and organises the most adequate assistance
among existing services. In the UK, there is as yet no system of mandatory reporting. In
1985 an interdepartmental working party in England came out strongly against any
proposal for a compulsory reporting law on the grounds that it would be
counterproductive and would increase the risks to children overall, first by weakening the
sense of personal responsibility among professionals and secondly by casting the
shadow of mere automatic reporting over their work.

It is a pity that the Childcare Policy Unit in our Department of Health, who produced the
discussion document Putting Children First, have not been able as yet to provide any
evaluation of the non-mandatory reporting systems that operate in other countries, and I
hope that such information might become available before final decisions are made about
mandatory reporting in Ireland. The Childcare Policy Unit have provided detailed
information about the impact that mandatory reporting has had in the USA. Among the
criticisms of it that should receive careful attention here before final decisions are made
are the following:

– Mandatory reporting has led to an explosion in child abuse reports. However, the
increase in the number of reported cases has not been matched by a commensurate
increase in the number of substantiated cases. The number of unsubstantiated cases
has risen from 35% in 1976 to 65% in 1992.

– Many critics feel that the increase in the volume of reports has resulted in
the child protection system becoming ‘swamped’ to the extent that it is now
in danger of collapse.
– It is argued that a disproportionate share of resources is being spent on investigations
rather than on services for children and their families. The majority of cases investigated
by child protection agencies receive no additional services.

– Insufficient funding has been provided for the training of mandated reporters and for
putting in place the infrastructure for providing the follow-up to reports of abuse.

I started this report by observing that the IAHIP Information Day had been a real eye-
opener for me. If this report has the effect of opening other eyes to the difficult and
complex issues – and I have touched on only a few of them – raised by the prospect of
introducing mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, a purpose will have been well
served.

Complete Ferns Report SO

Ireland"
https://ia801009.us.archive.org/13/items/243711-2-complete-ferns-report-so-
ireland/243711-2-complete-ferns-report-so-ireland.pdf

Historical institutional child abuse in

Ireland: survivor perspectives on
taking part in the Commission to
Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) and
the redress scheme
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330787879_Historical_institutional_child_abuse
_in_Ireland_survivor_perspectives_on_taking_part_in_the_Commission_to_Inquire_into_
Child_Abuse_CICA_and_the_redress_scheme/download

Child Abuse in Ireland: Policies and Legislation

n recent years, child abuse has been acknowledged as a growing problem in
Ireland (DoHC, 1999). Since the publication of the Child Abuse Guidelines in
1987 (DoHC, 1987), a number of reforms have been introduced which aim to
promote the protection and welfare of children. Healthcare professionals play
an important role in child protection and care (Crisp and Lister, 2004).
Community-based nurses, such as public health nurses, are frequently
among the first to detect signs of child abuse and it is therefore important for
them to have a full understanding both of their professional responsibilities in
relation to this key role, and of relevant legislation, strategies and guidelines.
In recent years, the Child Care Act 1991, Children Act 2001, Children
First guidelines and the National Children’s Strategy have served to place
children at the forefront of health and social care in Ireland.
Legislation
There is a wide variety of legislation relating to children. The United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN, 1989) was the first legally binding
document to address all aspects of human rights (i.e. civil, cultural,
economic, political and social) in relation to children, and recognise that
individuals under the age of 18 years require additional care and protection.
The Convention states that the basic human rights of all children are: the
right to survival; to develop to the fullest; and to participate fully in family,
cultural and social life and is underpinned by 4 principles: non-discrimination;
devotion to the best interests of the child; the right to life; and respect for the
views of the child.

In Ireland, the main legislation relating to child care is the Child Care Act
1991, which contains provisions relating to the care, protection and welfare
of children in Ireland (Government of Ireland, 1991). This Act contains 7 parts
which covers the promotion of child welfare, including taking children into
care, homeless children and adoption services; rules on the protection of
children in emergencies and care orders; jurisdiction and procedures to
ensure the welfare of the child is paramount in court proceedings; rules
relating to children in care; and rules on the supervision of pre-school
services and children’s residential centres. Under this Act, the Health Service
Executive (HSE) has a duty to ensure the welfare of those children who are
not receiving adequate care and protection through identification of children
at risk, and the provision of child care and family support services.

Other key legislative provisions include the Domestic Violence Act

1996; Protection for Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act 1998; The Data
Protection Act 1988; the Education Act 1998; the Non-Fatal Offences Against
the Person Act 1997; and the Freedom of Information Act 1997.

Strategies and guidelines

The Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of
Children guidelines (DoHC, 1999a) aim to offer assistance in identifying,
reporting and responding to child abuse. Importantly, these guidelines
promote an understanding of the relevant contribution of the different
professions in cases of child abuse; in particular, the role of public health
nurses in carrying out enquiries in cases where there are child protection
concerns and where they already have a close relationship with the family
involved. These guidelines highlight the need for family-centred child care
and protection and the formation of effective partnerships for consistent
service provision, as well as serving as a framework for multidisciplinary and
inter-agency working practices. Throughout, the welfare of the child is
emphasised as of paramount importance. Wider areas addressed within
these guidelines include underage pregnancy, peer abuse, bullying,
vulnerable children, abuse outside of the home, allegations of abuse against
employees and volunteers, and organised abuse.
The Best Health for Children: Developing a Partnership with Families strategy
(DoHC, 1999b) is based on a model that focuses on a holistic approach to
child health promotion encompassing emotional and psychological aspects
of health in addition to physical health. This strategy also acknowledges the
importance of the family in this process, particularly the value of parental
observations and concerns about their children. This report outlines a core
programme for child health surveillance which documents the role of the
public health nurse in making home visits soon after birth and throughout the
child’s early development. A follow-up report published in 2005 (DoHC, 2005)
has reviewed the original programme and made recommendations for
greater observation of child behaviour and development and increased
awareness of the determinants of child health, together with the formation of
partnerships between parents and healthcare professionals to improve child
health outcomes.

Role of the public health nurse

Public health nurses often carry out home-based parental assessment and
ongoing surveillance, particularly working with high-risk families; however, in
these situations, it can be difficult to build a trusting, supportive relationship if
parents feel threatened, powerless, or concerned about possible action
being taken against them. Marcellus proposed a framework of rational ethics
to develop trusting relationships with high-risk families, based on four
themes: mutual respect, engaged interaction, embodiment and creating
environment (Marcellus, 2005).

Current legislation, guidelines and strategies emphasise the need for

improved child protection and care to ensure the welfare of all children. The
public health nurse can play a key role in surveillance of high-risk families
and may be among the first to detect child abuse. Competence in
procedures for identification, reporting and responding to child abuse are
therefore essential. The public health nurse works as part of a
multidisciplinary team and should promote effective inter-agency
partnerships for optimum service provision for children and their families.

References
Crisp, B. R. & Lister, P. G. 2004, ‘Child protection and public health: nurses’
responsibilities’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 656-63.

Government of Ireland 1991, Child Care Act 1991. Retrieved 11 December th

2008 from: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1991/en/act/pub/0017/index.html

Government of Ireland 2001, Children Act 2001. Retrieved 11 December

th

2008 from: http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2002/en/si/0151.html

DoHC 1999a, Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and
Welfare of Children. Retrieved 11 December
th

from: http://www.dohc.ie/publications/children_first.html
DoHC 1999b, Best Health for Children: Developing a Partnership with
Families. Retrieved 11 December
th

from: http://www.hse.ie/eng/Publications/Children_and_Young_People/Best_
Health_for_Children_Developing_a_Partnership_with_Families.pdf

DoHC 2005, Best Health for Children Revisited. Retrieved 11 December th

from: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Best+Health+for+Children+
Revisited&btnG=Search&meta=

Marcellus, L. 2005, ‘The ethics of relation: public health nurses and child
protection clients’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 414-20.

United Nations 1989, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: the articles.
Retrieved 11 December 2008
th

from:http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm

NI And South of Ireland The Inquiry into Institutional Child Abuse in Ireland

http://archive.niassembly.gov.uk/researchandlibrary/2010/4110.pdf

The Investigation Committee exercised this power by extending the beginning of the
period back to 1936. The relevant period for the Confidential Committee was determined
to be between 1914 and 2000.

http://www.rirb.ie/documents/act_13_2002.pdf

Vaccine Trials Inquiry

The Vaccine Trials Inquiry was a Division of the Investigation Committee.

Judicial Review proceedings seeking, inter alia , a declaration that the Order
which established the Vaccine Trials Inquiry was ultra vires the Act of 2000,
were initiated in November 2003. On 25 November, 2003, an undertaking
was given to the High Court, by the Commission, that it would not conduct
any hearings in relation to the matters within the ambit of the Order, until
the matter was settled. The practical effect of this undertaking was that the
work of the Division was suspended at that point and never re-commenced,
given the subsequent decision of the Court, that the Order was ultra vires the
Act.

Consequently, the material below is, effectively, for archive/historical

purposes only, as and from November 2003.

The Honourable Mr Justice Sean Ryan, Chairperson of the Commission

Professor Edward Tempany, retired consultant paediatrician

Functions of the Commission inrelation to Vaccine Trials

a. the 3 vaccine trials referred to in the Report of the Chief Medical Officer
referred to the Commission by the Minister for Health and Children on
13th November 2000 (detailed below), and
 b. any other vaccine trial found by the Commission to have taken place in an
institution between 1940 and 1987 based on an allegation by a person who
was a child in that institution that he or she was the subject of such a vaccine
trial.

Report on Clinical Trials

Report by the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health and Children, referred
to the Commission by the Minister for Health and Children on 13th November 2000,
entitled

"Report on Three Clinical Trials Involving Babies and Children in Institutional Settings
1960/1961, 1970 and 1973".

Contacting the Commission With Information on Vaccine Trial

The Commission invites any person who alleges that as a child in an institution
between 1949 and 1987 he or she was the subject of a vaccine trial to contact the
Commission before Thursday 28th March 2002 giving particular details (Please see
Notice Board for Advertisement)

Public Hearings

Staff of the Vaccine Trials Inquiry

• Mr Brendan Reedy, Registrar

• Mr. Ciaran Patton, BL, Inquiry Officer
• Ms. Aine Shannon, BL, Inquiry Officer
• Ms Catherine Buckley, Administration

http://childabusecommission.ie/vaccinetrials/index.html

Ireland's hidden scandal: child vaccine

trials
By Patricia McDonagh
Friday, 20 August 2010

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/irelands-
hidden-scandal-child-vaccine-trials-14918544.html

Suspicions that vaccine trials had taken place on vulnerable Irish children -- many of whom were in
state care -- first surfaced in the early 1990s.

As the current decade dawned, former residents of children's homes began to publicly raise concerns
that they had been the subject of experimental trials.

However, it was not until 1997 that the State gave an assurance that it would formally inquire into the
issue.
Brian Cowen, who was then Health Minister, directed the chief medical officer at the Department of
Health, Dr James Kiely, to investigate the allegations.

In 2000, a report -- entitled the "Report On Three Clinical Trials Involving Babies And Children In
Institutional Settings, 1960/61, 1970 and 1973" -- was finally drawn up.

The document found that 211 children had been administered vaccines during three separate vaccine
trials conducted on behalf of a drugs company, The Wellcome Foundation.

More than 123 of these infants and toddlers were residents in children's homes in Dublin, Cork and the
midlands when the trials took place in the 1960s and 1970s.

Trial one involved 58 children in five children's homes in Dublin, Cork, Westmeath and Meath. The
trial investigated what would happen if four vaccines -- diphtheria, pertussis (also known as whooping
cough), tetanus and polio -- were combined in one overall four-in-one shot.

The trial was published in the 'British Medical Journal' in 1962. The final paragraph of it read: "We are
indebted to the medical officers in charge of the children's homes. . . for permission to carry out this
investigation on infants under their care."

Trial two, which was conducted during the summer of 1970, saw 35 children administered with the
intra-nasal rubella vaccine.

It involved children from St Anne's Industrial School in Booterstown, Co Dublin, and children living in
the Killucan area of Westmeath.

Published in the 'Cambridge Journal of Hygiene' in 1971, the trial attempted to find out if German
measles vaccine, administered intranasally, could spread to susceptible contacts.

Both trials were carried out by Professor Irene Hillery and Professor Patrick Meenan, from the
department of Medical Microbiology in University College Dublin, and other doctors.

The final trial involved 53 children from institutional homes. The homes were: St Patrick's Home,
Madonna House, Cottage Home, Bird's Nest and Boheennaburna. A further 65 children living at home
in Dublin also took part.

The purpose of the trial was to compare commercially available batches of the three-in-one vaccine,
Trivax and Trivax AD, with that of a modified vaccine prepared for the trial.

Dr Kiely's report said the decision to conduct such clinical trials was acceptable, given the diseases that
the vaccines sought to counter.

But, crucially, he insisted the lack of documentation available meant it had not been possible to
confirm if consent had been given by the parents or guardians of the children involved or what
arrangements were arrived at with managers of the homes.

He added that this lack of information also meant he could not confirm if the Therapeutic Substances
Act 1932 had been complied with in relation to the licensing of the trials.

The damning document was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on November 7, 2000.

On November 9, the then Health Minister Micheal Martin told the Dail an important part of the probe
was to establish if the State had fulfilled its obligations to children in its care.

But he admitted that the report was incomplete.

"It raises as many questions as it answers. Some of those questions go to the heart of our attitudes to
children and their rights," he said at the time

"The report is incomplete because in some areas, the most rigorous interrogation of the system failed to
produce documentary records of the trials."

Mr Martin said the Government had no evidence that any child had contracted a serious illness as a
result of the trials.

But he branded the lack of documentation "puzzling" and insisted that the report had to be the
"beginning and not the end" of the matter.

The minister referred the report of the investigation to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse --
known then as the Laffoy Commission.

A government order was subsequently made on June 19, 2001 to provide the commission with the
powers to create a separate module to formally investigate the issues involved.

The 'Vaccines Module' initially convened a public sitting on January 23, 2002, to outline its terms of
reference. It then began investigating the trials.

It obtained documents from GlaxoSmithKline, the successor of Wellcome, which allowed it to

definitively identify the homes and people involved in the trials.

Investigators received so much information relating to trial one that they were able to identify the
children given the 'four-in-one' vaccine.

It also conducted private interviews with witnesses to get a more accurate picture.

But just before the start of public hearings into the first trials, which were due to begin on June 17,
2003, the work of the commission was dealt a severe blow when the Supreme Court ruled that Prof
Meenan did not have to give evidence.

Prof Meenan had appealed a High Court order requiring him to comply with the commission's direction
to give evidence about his involvement in the trial.

The inquiry received a further setback when the Government's order directing the Laffoy Commission
probe was held to be invalid by the High Court in November 2003.

Mr Justice Aindrias O Caoimh gave his decision in a challenge brought by Prof Hillery. However, he
ruled that other machinery could exist for an appropriate inquiry.

On November 25, 2003, an undertaking was given to the High Court by the commission that it would
not conduct any hearings in relation to matters within the ambit of the order.

It had been hoped that the Government would appeal this decision. But on November 2006, Health
Minister Mary Harney ordered the vaccine module to be closed down.

Now, some of the victims have been left with no alternative but to seek redress in a US court after Ms
Harney again firmly ruled out any further inquiries into existing or new allegations.

The victims' basic requests appear to be far from unreasonable; an apology for what was done to them;
full medical screening to see if they have suffered any damaging long-term effects from the trials; and
psychiatric counselling to help them get over their ordeal.

But even this, it appears, is beyond the capacity or willingness of the State to deliver.
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/irelands-hidden-scandal-
child-vaccine-trials-28553907.html

Glaxo SmithKline
rning on Label Omits Deaths
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/reports/fda/lat_raxar00
1220.htm
Heart problems were mentioned in fine print, but not key
dosage data.
By DAVID WILLMAN, Times Staff WriterWednesday,
December 20, 2000 |
When the antibiotic Raxar was approved on Nov. 6, 1997,
FDA officials knew that it too might cause irregular rhythm and
stop a patient's heart. An agency medical officer, Dr. Andrea
N. Meyerhoff, suspected that two of four patients who died after
taking Raxar in clinical trials possibly suffered heart-rhythm
disturbances caused by the drug. Meyerhoff noted in her
review that the drug manufacturer, Glaxo Wellcome Inc., said
Raxar played no role in the deaths. But Meyerhoff wrote that the
two cases posed an open question. Each patient who died had
taken 600-milligram doses. Regarding one of those patients, a
68-year-old man who died a week after completing the clinical
trial, Meyerhoff wrote: "This patient may have been at higher
risk for [fatal] arrhythmia due to QT interval prolongation from
grepafloxacin," the chemical name of Raxar. The second patient
died five days after withdrawing from the clinical trial. She
added in her review, dated November 1997: "Again it is not
clear that this event is unrelated to [Raxar]. Sudden death in a
patient with no prior cardiac history is suggestive of an
arrhythmia. . . . The label will need to have an adequate warning
regarding the possibility of QT prolongation." Overall, she
found a "significantly higher" rate of adverse events among
patients who had taken 600 milligrams compared with lower
doses. With Meyerhoff's assent, the FDA approved Raxar for
treating bronchitis, pneumonia, urinary tract infections and
gonorrhea. The drug's label stated that "prolongation of the QT
interval has been observed in healthy volunteers receiving
Raxar." But the label did not disclose the fatalities described
in Meyerhoff's review. It said that "there were no deaths or
permanent disabilities" among those who took Raxar in 400-
milligram doses. The statement was true, if incomplete: All four
of the study patients who died took Raxar in 600-milligram
doses. And Glaxo marketed the drug at doses of 200 milligrams,
400 milligrams and 600 milligrams. A total of 925 patients took
the 600 milligrams dose in the clinical studies. On Oct. 27,
1999, Glaxo pulled Raxar off the market. In a subsequent
letter to doctors, Glaxo said that because of Raxar's effect on
"QT interval prolongation" the drug was unacceptably risky. In
a separate statement, the company said it "is no longer
convinced that the benefits of Raxar outweigh the potential risk
to patients, given the availability of alternative
antibiotics." Records filed with the FDA show that Raxar was
cited as a suspect in the voluntarily reported deaths of 13
patients. They ranged in age from 42 to 86; most of them were
under 70. "[Raxar] goes on the market, kills people and has to
come off," said Dr. Raymond L. Woosley, the pharmacology
department chairman at Georgetown University who served on
an FDA advisory committee in the 1980s. "It had been proven,
over and over, that this QT prolongation predicts terrible
events." By the time of the withdrawal, Raxar had generated
$23.5 million in U.S. sales. Securities analysts had predicted it
could be a $1-billion drug. With so many other antibiotics on
the market, why did the FDA expose patients to the risk of
Raxar? In a written response to questions, Woodcock
indicated that the FDA sought to address the drug's cardiac risk
through precautionary language in its labeling. Asked why
that labeling did not acknowledge the deaths of patients who
took doses of 600 milligrams, Woodcock wrote that none of the
fatalities "was shown to be attributable to Raxar." In an
interview over the summer, Woodcock said the FDA's patience
was gone for new drugs that prolong the QT interval. "We're
encouraging people, if there's QT prolongation, don't develop
it," she said. This would mark a turnabout. Just last
December--less than two months after the withdrawal of Raxar--
the FDA approved a new antibiotic, called Avelox, despite the
drug's well-documented propensity in clinical studies to prolong
the QT interval. Avelox was approved for treating sinus
infections, bronchitis and pneumonia. On the 267th line of the
Avelox label, doctors are warned in bold type that it "has been
shown to prolong the QT interval." So far, Avelox, made by
Bayer Corp., has been prescribed for more than 300,000 patients
in the U.S. The drug has been cited as a suspect in 18 deaths
here and abroad. A Bayer spokesman, Robert Kloppenburg, said
that the company does not believe any of the fatalities were
"attributable" to Avelox and that most of the patients had serious
preexisting conditions. Avelox, he said, holds an advantage
over many antibiotics because it need only be taken once daily
for five days to be effective against bronchial infections.
Securities analysts predicted in February that Avelox would
generate sales topping $1 billion within three
years. Woodcock said the FDA approved Avelox because
"the extent of QT prolongation . . . was too small to pose a
significant risk in the face of the benefits." She noted that an
agency advisory committee recommended approval and said
that "a conservative approach was taken in the label."
http://whale.to/drugs/raxar1.html

Clinical Trials Involving Babies And Children In Institutional Settings,

1960/61, 1970 and 1973
Child medical experiments

Hundreds of children are feared to have been subjected to the experimental trials while in the care of
the Catholic Church.

[2012] Victim reveals horror of vaccine trials' secret legacy Hundreds of children are feared to have
been subjected to the experimental trials while in the care of the Catholic Church. Now the victims'
cases could be reopened, as calls for the Government to deal with the scandal intensifies. Legal action
is being planned against GlaxoSmithKline and the Sacred Heart Order, which allowed the tests at the
Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork.

[2010 Aug] Ireland's hidden scandal: child vaccine trials 211 children had been administered vaccines
during three separate vaccine trials conducted on behalf of a drugs company, The Wellcome
Foundation. More than 123 of these infants and toddlers were residents in children's homes in Dublin,
Cork and the midlands when the trials took place in the 1960s and 1970s. Trial one involved 58
children in five children's homes in Dublin, Cork, Westmeath and Meath. The trial investigated what
would happen if four vaccines -- diphtheria, pertussis (also known as whooping cough), tetanus and
polio -- were combined in one overall four-in-one shot. The trial was published in the 'British Medical
Journal' in 1962. The final paragraph of it read: "We are indebted to the medical officers in charge of
the children's homes. . . for permission to carry out this investigation on infants under their
care." Trial two, which was conducted during the summer of 1970, saw 35 children administered with
the intra-nasal rubella vaccine.

http://whale.to/vaccine/bessborough_mother_and_baby_home.html

Victim reveals horror of vaccine trials'

secret legacy
CHRISTIAN MCCASHIN – UPDATED 30 NOVEMBER 2012 06:19

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/victim-reveals-horror-of-
vaccine-trials-secret-legacy-26674008.html
A CLERICAL child abuse victim revealed the full horror yesterday of the 'human guinea pig' drug
trials carried out in church-run children's homes.

Hundreds of children are feared to have been subjected to the experimental trials while in the care of
the Catholic Church.

Now the victims' cases could be reopened, as calls for the Government to deal with the scandal
intensifies.

Legal action is being planned against GlaxoSmithKline and the Sacred Heart Order, which allowed the
tests at the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork.

Campaigner and abuse survivor John Barrett, who was born at the home outside Cork city, was used as
a 'human guinea pig' while in Lota industrial school, also in Cork.

"We didn't have a clue what was being done to us at the time," he said. "We only found out years
later."

John, now 58, wants to know the truth behind the children's ordeal, who conducted the tests and why
such experiments were allowed.

Hundreds of youngsters in children's homes are believed to have been used in trials in the Sixties and
Seventies to improve vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.

John was used in four different experiments when he was aged 12 and 13 at the Lota home.

He said: "All of the boys of my age were taken off and given tests, X-rays and general examinations.

"Lists were made of those deemed to be 'healthy' and we would sometimes be lined up in one of the
dormitories and given massive injections.

"We didn't know what we were being given. Later blood tests would be taken and those whose scars
from the first injection had disappeared were given a second dose.

"Over a couple of years, this happened about four times. I don't think they were the normal injections
you would expect.

"There is a major inquiry into child abuse so there should be a similar inquiry set up alongside it into
medical experiments on children."
More than 25,000 youngsters spent time in Irish orphanages between 1960 and 1975, the period when
the controversial one-in-four trials are believed to have taken place.

Kevin Cooney of the Adopted And Fostered Persons' Association said: "These orphans were society's
most innocent and vulnerable people.

"The State participated in abusing the rights of children in their care. That is indefensible. There must
be a full disclosure."

Meanwhile Health Minister Mary Harney has been called on to instruct her officials to make available
all relevant information regarding the ongoing vaccine trials.

The call comes following Mari Steed, 50, breaking her silence on Friday, in the Irish Independent, into
how she was subjected to a controversial vaccine trial as a baby without her mother's consent.

She said she the trial were carried out on her between December 1960 and October 1961, when she was
between nine and 18 months old.

Ms Steed, who now lives in the US, and three others, are preparing to take legal action in US courts
against the drugs company, GlaxoSmithKline.

Leas Ceann Comhairle Brendan Howlin, who was health minister in 1993, assured victims that an
inquiry had found they suffered no ill effects from the experimental medical tests.

He admitted he did not remember the probe or its findings. The Department of Health said it was
searching department archives in a bid to locate the documents.

Mr Reilly said yesterday that all the facts must be put on the table.

"It is totally unacceptable for children in the care of the State to be involved in a vaccine trial without
proper information being made available, or the full consent of their parents or guardians.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/victim-reveals-horror-of-vaccine-trials-secret-legacy-
26674008.html

Victim reveals horror of vaccine

trials' secret legacy
Christian McCashin
August 22 2010
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/victim-reveals-horror-of-vaccine-trials-secret-
legacy-26674008.html
GlaxoSmithKline settles charges it
unlawfully promoted Advair and other
popular drugs
The giant pharma will pay $105 million to settle charges that it
misrepresented Advair, Paxil and Wellbutrin
06/04/2014 |
By Truman Lewis
A former reporter and bureau chief for broadcast outlets and
magazines, Truman Lewis has covered presidential campaigns, state
politics and stories ranging from organized crime to environmental
protection. Read Full Bio→
GlaxoSmithKline will pay $105 million to settle charges that
it unlawfully promoted its asthma drug Advair and antidepressants
Paxil and Wellbutrin. The payment settles charges brought by 45 state
attorneys general.

The attorneys general alleged GSK violated state consumer protection
laws by misrepresenting the proper use and qualities of Advair, Paxil
and Wellbutrin and by marketing the drugs for “off-label uses,” or uses
that were not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA).

“GlaxoSmithKline put its business interests ahead of what was best for
vulnerable patients,” said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. “This
settlement will put a stop to the illegal marketing practices the
company used to boost its sales.”

The case is the most recent in a long list of lawsuits and prosecutions
that accused GlaxoSmithKline of unlawful conduct.

The attorneys general alleged GSK promoted Advair for off-label use to
mild asthma sufferers. Mild asthmatics were steered to the drug for
initial treatment, which was not a use approved by the FDA, even when
substantially cheaper alternative medications were a better treatment
option for these patients.

GSK also illegally marketed its antidepressant drug, Paxil, as safe and
effective for children and teens, which the FDA had not approved, in
spite of clinical trials that raised concerns the drug was associated with
an increased risk of suicide.

Weight loss

The attorneys general alleged GSK also illegally marketed a second
antidepressant drug, Wellbutrin, to children without FDA approval. GSK
also unlawfully marketed Wellbutrin as an “off-label” drug for weight
loss and to treat attention deficit disorder, addiction, anxiety and bi-
polar disorder.

The settlement will require GSK to continue its so-called “Patient First
Program” for five years. The Patient First Program reduces the level of
financial incentives by the company to drug sales representatives in
order to reduce deceptive marketing tactics.

The settlement also requires scientifically trained personnel to develop
and approve responses to health care provider questions to ensure
their responses are unbiased and do not promote specific drugs.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/glaxosmithkline-settles-
charges-it-unlawfully-promoted-advair-and-other-popular-drugs-
060414.html
VRM: The Confidenti al Case-files of GlaxoSmith Kline -
Cover-up, Deferral & Denial of Responsibi lity for Vaccine-re
lated Premature Deaths
7th April 2013 - By Joel Lord
The Vaccine Industry measures human life in terms of the
percentages of profits to be gained. They achieve this end by
routinely skewing preliminary vaccine trial data; subsequently
burying or denying reports of vaccine-derived neurological
trauma & neuro-developmental disorders affiliated directly with
the shots.
Vaccine Manufacturers are legally immune from prosecution for
infant deaths in cases involving potential vaccine related trauma.
So as a result, mainstream Pediatricians, who admittedly receive
financial kickbacks for pushing Big Pharma products on their
patients, (a clear conflict-of-interest type relationship which is
fostered beginning in Medical school through seminars,
promotions, honorariums, grants & other lucrative incentives; an
alliance which extends to private/public clinics & hospitals
through major donations ie. supplying medical equipment,
upgrading infrastructure, passing off free samples etc; including
highly coveted medical research positions in the field) are
subsequently hamstrung in their capacity and/or willingness to
attribute any association to these shots, despite often substantial
evidence pointing to an immediate causal link.
Regrettably, most Pediatricians are completely in dark on these
crucial aspects of vaccine-derived synergistic heavy
metal/excipient derived toxicity associated with early childhood
immunization, the acute vulnerability of a baby’s brain &
central nervous system properties (Myelin Sheath, Blood-brain
barrier, Meninges). Almost all mainstream Pediatricians are
loathe to promote the benefits of holistic health, as it
contravenes the bottom line business practice of peddling
prescription drugs & vaccines on the community at large. Self-
reliance & optimal natural immunity is not in their best interest.
Their education is specifically limited & tailored to the scope of
that which supports the advancing of the Industry food-chain of
profits, under the banner of “herd immunity”. The human cost is
typically overlooked and under-reported.
The following confidential case-files pertaining to the
GlaxoSmithKline vaccine, Infanrix hexa™, were recently
uncovered; a glaring exposé into Vaccine Industry malfeasance,
which reveal the systemic cover-up, deferral & denial of
responsibility for vaccine-related premature deaths (among
infants) by vaccine manufacturing giant GlaxoSmithKline. Bare
in mind, this startling evidence only represents the tip of the
iceberg, given the fact that a mere 5-10% of vaccine related
adverse reports are ever submitted by families – what is termed
‘underreporting’.
The average age of deaths among infants reported by the
attending Pediatricians range from 7-weeks-old to 4-months-old.
All the infants received multiple injections of Infanrix hexa™,
averaging 2-3 doses. All reported deaths occurred within (2-11)
days of receiving multiple vaccines, attributed to the “preferred
term” Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), with subsequent
autopsies found to be either “inconclusive” or showing “no
obvious cause of death”.
Adverse effects compiled include the following: Cardiac arrest,
Convulsion, Hypokinesia, Depressed level of consciousness,
Mouth haemorrhage, Nasopharyngitis, Asphyxia, Apnoeic
attack, Pallor, Oxygen saturation decreased, Heart rate
decreased, Sepsis, Viral infection, Pyrexia, Loss of
consciousness, Cyanosis, Metabolic disorder, Ataxia, Balance
disorder, Diplopia, Strabismus, Nervous system disorder,
Adverse drug reaction, Death.
Excerpts from case files -
‘Two days after vaccinations, the subject died in bed. ‘
‘Less than one day after vaccination, the subject experienced
convulsions.’
‘Four days after vaccination with Infanrix hexa™ and Prevenar,
the subject was brought to day care centre. At 12:00, the subject
was nonresponsive and had blood in his mouth.’
‘…sudden infant death in a 7-week-old female four days after
vaccination with unspecified doses of Rotarix and Infanrix
hexa™…subject experienced suffocation during sleep.’
‘Approximately nine days post-vaccinations, the subject was
found lifeless in bed in supine position covered by a
cushion/pillow. An emergency physician was only able to
certify death.’
‘Approximately 3 days after vaccinations in the morning the
subject experienced apnoea. When the emergency care team
arrived the subject was unconscious. Cardiac arrest with apnoea
and asystole was diagnosed. Resuscitation was unsuccessful.’
‘Five days after vaccinations, the subject experienced ataxia,
instability and diplopia (described as strabismus). The physician
suspected a possible neurological alteration.’
‘Eleven days after vaccination the subject experienced death
NOS. The subject experienced adverse drug reaction and was
found dead in her bed after her afternoon nap. The subject had
no concomitant medication and no relevant medical history.’
‘This case was reported by the German regulatory authority and
described the occurrence of death in a 12-week-old male who
was vaccinated with unspecified doses of Infanrix hexa™ and
Prevenar on 9 January 2006. Approximately 11 days post-
vaccination, the subject died.’
‘One day after vaccinations, the subject was hospitalised to a
paediatric intensive care unit and reanimated, but died from
unknown cause.’
‘Next morning after vaccinations, the subject was normally
drinking and was put in bed. Approximately two to three hours
later, the subject was found lifeless in bed in supine position.’
‘This case was reported by a physician and described the
occurrence of possible SIDS in a 3-month-old male who was
vaccinated with unspecified doses of Infanrix hexa™ and
Prevenar on 29 December 2009. Later on in the evening, the
subject was found dead under unknown circumstances in bed.’
‘…sudden infant death syndrome in a 2-month-old male who
was vaccinated with unspecified doses of Infanrix hexa™,
RotaTeq and Prevenar on 27 April 2010…Twelve hours after
vaccination, the subject went dusky and experienced apnoea
attack, reduced oxygen saturation and decreased heart
rate…Three days after discharge, the subject had another
episode of apnoea and could not be resuscitated. The subject
died from sudden infant death syndrome 5 days after
vaccination.’
‘…occurrence of cardiovascular arrest in a 3-month-old male
who was vaccinated with the 2nd dose of Infanrix hexa™ and
Prevenar on 29 September 2009…Approximately three days
post-vaccination, subject was found unconscious and the
subject’s body was blue (cyanosis). Upon arrival of an
emergency physician the pupils were medium wide, no pulse
could be determined and oxygen saturation could not be
measured. The subject was intubated and cardiopulmonary
resuscitation was started. Under ongoing resuscitation the
subject was transferred to a hospital. In hospital the subject was
treated with adrenaline and atropine. Echocardiography and
ECG both showed no detectable heart reaction. Body
temperature, taken in the ear, was 39.4 degC. Resuscitation was
without success and was stopped.’
‘The 2080 reports were received from 41 countries, mainly
France (645 reports, 31%), Italy (602 reports, 28.9%) and
Germany (339 reports, 16.3%). Based on the initial reporting
source, 783 cases were received from healthcare professionals
and 1297 cases by non-healthcare professionals (consumers,
regulatory authorities, representatives, literature, other).’ – Page
709
‘This analysis shows that the number of sudden death cases
reported within 19 days of Infanrix hexa™ vaccination is below
the number of cases expected for this time period in children
under 2 years of age except when death occurred during the first
three days after vaccination in the second year of life where the
observed death number is almost equal to the number expected.
The Company will continue to monitor these cases and their
reporting frequencies.’ – Page 783
Case B0601431A – MedDRA Preferred Term (Sudden infant
death syndrome): This case was reported by a healthcare
professional and described the occurrence of cot death in a 3-
month-old female who was vaccinated with the 2nd doses of
Infanrix hexa™ and Prevenar on 21 October 2009. Two days
after vaccinations, the subject died in bed. The parents found the
baby lying on the belly. Autopsy did not reveal any cause of
death.
Company comment: Suspected case of SIDS, autopsy did not
reveal clear cause of death. No details on medical history
available. The subject received concomitant vaccination with
Prevenar.
Case B0605003A – MedDRA Preferred Terms (Cardiac arrest,
Convulsion, Hypokinesia): This case was reported by the Italian
regulatory authority and described the occurrence of cardiac
arrest in a 2-month-old female who was vaccinated with an
unspecified dose of Infanrix hexa™ on 10 August 2009. Less
than one day after vaccination, the subject experienced
convulsions. The subject was hospitalised from 14 August until
19 August 2009. At the time of reporting, the event was
resolved with sequelae. Last convulsion episode was on 18
October 2009. The baby showed a regular growth but a light
motor retardation in respect of the age. Her weight was 7.10 kg.
Diagnostic tests as karyotype, ultrasonography, computerized
axial tomography and nuclear magnetic resonance were
negative. She was treated with Luminalette. According to the
follow up information received on 01 June 2010, the subject
died due to a cardiac arrest at an unspecified time after
vaccination.
Company comment: (Case of Sudden Unexpected Death in
Infancy (SUDI). The subject had a history of convulsions since
2-months of age, which started less than one day after
vaccination with Infanrix hexa™. The final diagnosis was not
reported, however, the child received anticonvulsive treatment.
Cause of death was reported as cardiac arrest, but circumstances
of death were not available. It was unknown whether an autopsy
was performed.
Case B0608494A – MedDRA Preferred Terms (Sudden infant
death syndrome, Depressed level of consciousness, Mouth
haemorrhage, Nasopharyngitis): This case was reported by a
healthcare professional and described the occurrence of cot
death in a 14-week-old male who was vaccinated with the 2nd
dose of Infanrix hexa™ and Prevenar on 12 November 2009.
The child was born at term and weighed 4120 g. The child had a
history of viral infection before vaccination with the 1st dose of
Infanrix hexa™ and Prevenar. In the beginning of November, 2
weeks before death, the subject had a common cold. The subject
did not experience any adverse events after vaccination. Four
days after vaccination with Infanrix hexa™ and Prevenar, the
subject was brought to day care centre. He had no fever.
He burped well after being fed and was put into bed at 9:25
lying on the abdomen (with permission of the mother) and he
was being checked every 20 minutes. At 12:00, the subject was
nonresponsive and had blood in his mouth. Reanimation was
started immediately and the the child was admitted to hospital.
The child died on 16 November 2009 from sudden infant death
syndrome. An autopsy was performed and did not reveal any
cause of death found in autopsy or on toxicological
investigation.
Company comment: Possible case of SIDS. The subject had
viral infections as medical history. No adverse events were
reported after vaccinations. The subject was placed in prone
position into bed. No clear cause of death was found on the
autopsy.
Case B0639243A – MedDRA Preferred Terms: (Sudden infant
death syndrome, Asphyxia): This case was reported by a
physician and described the occurrence of sudden infant death in
a 7-week-old female four days after vaccination with
unspecified doses of Rotarix and Infanrix hexa™. The reporter
informed that the subject experienced suffocation during sleep.
Company comment: Case of SUDI or suspected SIDS. No
medical history and circumstances of death were reported. The
subject, according to the reporter, experienced asphyxia during
sleep. It was unknown whether an autopsy was performed.
Case B0657890A – MedDRA Preferred Terms (Sudden infant
death syndrome, Apnoeic attack, Pallor, Oxygen saturation
decreased, Heart rate decreased): This case was reported by a
healthcare professional and described the occurrence of sudden
infant death syndrome in a 2-month-old male who was
vaccinated with unspecified doses of Infanrix hexa™, RotaTeq
and Prevenar on 27 April 2010. Concurrent medical condition
included premature birth at 26 weeks of gestation. Twelve hours
after vaccination, the subject went dusky and experienced
apnoea attack, reduced oxygen saturation and decreased heart
rate. The subject was hospitalised. Relevant test results
included: heart rate more than 100 bpm, pO2 over 94 %, normal
cranial ultrasound and ophthalmological examination. The
subject was treated with mechanical ventilation, stayed under
observation for 48 hours and was discharged. Three days after
discharge, the subject had another episode of apnoea and could
not be resuscitated. The subject died from sudden infant death
syndrome 5 days after vaccination.
Company comment: Case of SUDI. The subject died due to
apnoea attack, likely related to his severe prematurity. It was
unknown whether an autopsy was performed.
Case D0064259A – MedDRA Preferred Terms (Cardiac arrest,
Sudden infant death syndrome, Sepsis, Viral infection,
Resuscitation, Pyrexia, Loss of consciousness, Cyanosis): This
case was reported by the German regulatory authority and
described the occurrence of cardiovascular arrest in a 3-month-
old male who was vaccinated with the 2nd dose of Infanrix
hexa™ and Prevenar on 29 September 2009. The subject’s
parents have separated about two weeks prior to the events. The
subject was cared for by the father with the help of his sister-in-
law and mother-in-law. The subject did not experience any
adverse event between date of vaccination and date of death.
Approximately three days post-vaccination, in the morning
around 07:30 the subject appeared normal. About half an hour
later, at around 08:00, the subject was supposed to be fed with a
bottle. The subject was found unconscious and the subject’s
body was blue (cyanosis). Upon arrival of an emergency
physician the pupils were medium wide, no pulse could be
determined and oxygen saturation could not be measured. The
subject was intubated and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was
started. Under ongoing resuscitation the subject was transferred
to a hospital. In hospital the subject was treated with adrenaline
and atropine. Echocardiography and ECG both showed no
detectable heart reaction. Body temperature, taken in the ear,
was 39.4 degC. Resuscitation was without success and was
stopped. An autopsy was performed, but results were not
conclusive. According to autopsy both SIDS and viral infection
were possible causes of death. External force and shaken baby
syndrome were excluded by autopsy.
Company comment: Case of SUDI. The subject died due to
cardiac arrest 3 days after multiple vaccinations. The autopsy
results were inconclusive and considered SIDS and viral
infection as possible causes of death.
Case D0064689A – MedDRA Preferred Term (Sudden infant
death syndrome): This case was reported by the German
regulatory authority and described the occurrence of SIDS in 3-
month-old male subject who was vaccinated with unspecified
doses of Synflorix and Infanrix hexa™ on 04 November 2009.
The subject has no underlying or concurrent medical conditions
or other risk factors. The subject has received previous
vaccination with Synflorix™ and Infanrix hexa™. It was
unknown how previous vaccinations were tolerated.
Approximately nine days post-vaccinations, the subject was
found lifeless in bed in supine position covered by a
cushion/pillow. An emergency physician was only able to
certify death. Police reported that the children’s room was
severely overheated and in the whole apartment people had been
smoking. Autopsy was performed and showed age-
corresponding state of development and very good state of care.
Multipe punctual haemorrhages up to the size of a pinhead were
found under the thymus capsule, subepicardial and on the
surface of the lungs. Distinct disorder of blood distribution was
seen in the lungs as well as increased fluid and blood content in
the lungs and foam in the respiratory tract (pulmonary edema).
Neither signs of external force by a third party nor signs of
shaken baby syndrome have been detected.
No signs of organic malformation have been detected. The cause
of death could not be unambiguously determined. Punctual
haemorrhages under the thymus capsule, subepicardial and on
the surface of the lungs were normally seen within the scope of
SIDS and therefore the autopsy performing physicians
considered SIDS. Possible risk factors associated with SIDS
included coverage with a pillow, severely overheating, not
feeding with breast milk and passive smoking. Furthermore
autopsy showed increased water retention of the lungs as well as
distinct disorder of blood distribution within the lungs, which
could be signs of a beginning pulmonary infection.
Microbiological examinations, performed on 20 November
2009, showed solitary St. aureus in both pulmonary swabs and a
single St. aureus colony in the spleen swab as potential
infectious agent, but this bacterium was also known as normal
bacterial flora of the upper respiratory tract. All other bacteria
found belong either to physiological intestinal flora or were
normal parts of the throat and skin flora. Therefore infectious
events could be excluded with some probability.
Company comment: Case of SUDI. The subject died 9 days
after multiple vaccinations. The autopsy results were
inconclusive and considered SIDS (in presence of numerous risk
factors) and pulmonary infection as possible causes of death.
Case D0065445A – MedDRA Preferred Term (Sudden infant
death syndrome): This case was reported by a physician and
described the occurrence of SIDS in a 3-month-old female one
day after vaccination with the 1st dose of Infanrix hexa™ and
Prevenar on 09 December 2009. The subject’s development and
weight gain were normal, her medical history was unsuspicious.
She was breast-fed for three months. Postvaccinations the
subject did not experience fever. Next morning after
vaccinations, the subject was normally drinking and was put in
bed. Approximately two to three hours later, the subject was
found lifeless in bed in supine position. The subject died on 10
December 2009 from SIDS. An autopsy was performed, but no
results were available.
Company comment: Suspected case of SIDS. The subject died 1
day after multiple vaccinations. Subject’s medical history was
unsuspicious, no adverse event were reported after vaccinations.
Autopsy was performed, but the results were not available.
Case D0066068A – MedDRA Preferred Term (Sudden infant
death syndrome): This case was reported by a physician and
described the occurrence of possible SIDS in a 3-month-old
male who was vaccinated with unspecified doses of Infanrix
hexa™ and Prevenar on 29 December 2009. The subject had
three healthy siblings. He was a healthy term baby and was
breast-fed. The subject’s mother did not smoke. The subject had
received the last meal, consisting of mother’s milk on 29
December 2009 in the evening. Later on in the evening, the
subject was found dead under unknown circumstances in bed.
An autopsy was performed. The results of autopsy were
inconclusive and showed no obvious cause of death. Therefore
cause of death was considered to be SIDS.
Company comment: Possible case of SIDS. The subject died
less than 1 day after multiple vaccinations. Subject’s medical
history included healthy term baby, without underlying
condition. Autopsy did not reveal clear cause of death.
Case D0067790A – MedDRA Preferred Terms (Sudden infant
death syndrome, Death, Apnoea, Cardiac arrest, Loss of
consciousness, Resuscitation): This case was reported by the
German regulatory authority and described the occurrence of
SIDS in a 9-week-old male who was vaccinated with Infanrix
hexa™ and Prevenar on 31 March 2010. Complication during
pregnancy included cranial haemorrhage of the mother due to
cerebral artery aneurysm in the 19th week of gestation. The
subject was born in the 33rd week of pregnancy by Caesarean
section. At that time the subject was immature with a birth
weight of 1805g with mild respiratory distress syndrome.
Postnatal the subject showed good adaptation, but chest X-ray,
performed on 28 January 2010, showed mixed picture of mild
neonatal respiratory distress syndrome and wet lung. Repeated
sonography and neonatal screening were normal. Concurrent
medications included colecalciferol and iron salt. For the third
child health check, performed on 04 March 2010, the subject
showed normal development concerning weight, length and
head circumference.
The subject showed no pathologic findings except mild
hydrocele. However, according to percentile curve of the WHO
the subject was in reduced nutritional condition with a weight of
3700g and a height of 55cm. Approximately 3 days after
vaccinations in the morning the subject experienced apnoea.
When the emergency care team arrived the subject was
unconscious. Cardiac arrest with apnoea and asystole was
diagnosed. Resuscitation was unsuccessful. Concurrent medical
conditions included old contusion and hematoma on right side
of chest. An autopsy was performed and macroscopically, did
not reveal unambiguous cause of death. All autopsy findings
were suggestive for SIDS. The findings not consistent with
SIDS (skin fissures in the corner of mouth, ecchymoses in area
of central chest wall, hemorrhage in capsule of adrenal gland
and kidney) can be explained with plausibility by long and
continuous resuscitation. Further toxicological examination
could not identify the cause of death. According to the report on
the histological examination, results largely confirmed the
findings of the autopsy.
Besides unspecific signs of death, punctuate haemorrhage of the
organs’ connective tissue coatings and pulmonary emphysema
were considered the essential findings. Acute emphysema could
be interpreted as evidence of suffocation. It was concluded that
definite cause of death could be identified, neither in
histological examinations nor in toxicological tests. It was
discussed that the toxicological tests covered a certain spectrum
of substances only and would miss some rare and exceptional
substances. Because of the combination of pulmonary
emphysema and the fissures at the left corner of the mouth,
which had been observed during the autopsy, death due to
suffocation following violent obstruction of respiratory orifices
could not be excluded. Likewise it could not be excluded that
these findings were caused during the reanimation procedures.
Company comment: Case of SUDI. Preterm subject, with
respiratory distress in medical history, died approximately 3
days after multiple vaccinations. Autopsy did not reveal clear
cause of death. Majority of findings were within SIDS, however
violent obstruction of respiratory tract could not be excluded.
Case B0661542A – MedDRA Preferred Terms (Metabolic
disorder, Ataxia, Balance disorder, Diplopia, Strabismus,
Nervous system disorder): This case was reported by a
physician and described the occurrence of ataxia in a 6-month-
old male who was vaccinated with the 3rd doses of Infanrix
hexa™ and Prevenar in March 2010. The subject’s medical
history included episodes of shaking head, arms and legs several
times a day, which occurred at the age of 5 months. Five days
after vaccinations, the subject experienced ataxia, instability and
diplopia (described as strabismus). The physician suspected a
possible neurological alteration. The subject was hospitalized
and some relevant tests (NMR, ECG, CSF, other unspecified
laboratory tests, nasopharyngeal exudates) were performed and
showed normal results. Catecholamine and muscular biopsy
results were pending. The ataxia remained until the age of 9
months. The shaking moves have repeated in some occasions.
The subject was hospitalized in an intensive care due to a
possible aspiration from 16 to 24 June 2010. He underwent EEG
in July 2010 and it showed 3 lesions compatible with metabolic
disorder. The final diagnosis was a possible metabolic disease
with very limited clinical picture. According to the follow-up
information received in August 2010, the subject died in July
2010 due to a possible metabolic disorder of a mitochondrial
origin.
Company comment: The subject died due to a possible
metabolic disorder of a mitochondrial origin several months
after 3d vaccination with Infanrix hexa™ and Prevenar. It was
unknown whether an autopsy was performed.
Case B0599802A- MedDRA Preferred Term (Death, Adverse
drug reaction): This case was reported by a healthcare
professional and described the occurrence of death NOS (not
otherwise specified) in a 4-month-old female who was
vaccinated with the 3rd dose of Infanrix hexa™ and Prevenar on
15 October 2009. Eleven days after vaccination the subject
experienced death NOS. The subject experienced adverse drug
reaction and was found dead in her bed after her afternoon nap.
The subject had no concomitant medication and no relevant
medical history. The subject was transferred to hospital.
Hospital report was pending. No autopsy was performed.
Follow-up information has been requested.
Case D0063296A – MedDRA Preferred Term (Death): This
case was reported by the German regulatory authority and
described the occurrence of death in a 12-week-old male who
was vaccinated with unspecified doses of Infanrix hexa™ and
Prevenar on 9 January 2006. The subject‟s mother suffered
from epilepsy. The subject was exposed in utero to
levetiracetam during about the first three months of pregnancy.
The rest of pregnancy and birth was inconspicuous, except for
fracture of a clavicle. Concurrent medical conditions included
agitation and crying abnormal (whiny baby). Approximately 11
days post-vaccination, the subject died. The cause of death was
not further specified. It was unknown whether an autopsy was
performed.
Case D0069211A – MedDRA Preferred Term (Death): This
case was reported by a physician and described the occurrence
of unspecified death in a child of unspecified gender who was
vaccinated on an unspecified date with an unspecified 6-valent
vaccine and unspecified pneumococcal vaccine (manufacturers
unspecified). One day after vaccinations, the subject was
hospitalised to a paediatric intensive care unit and reanimated,
but died from unknown cause. An autopsy was performed.
Follow-up information has been requested.

Package Insert – Infanrix hexa™ (Combined Diptheria, Tetanus

and Acellular Pertusis, Hepatits B inhanced Inactivated
Poliomyelitis Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine)
Infanrix hexa™ contains the following antigens adsorbed onto
aluminium salts: diphtheria toxoid, tetanus toxoid, three purified
pertussis antigens pertussis toxoid (PT), filamentous
haemagglutinin (FHA) and pertactin (PRN; 69 kiloDalton outer
membrane protein) , the purified major surface antigen (HBsAg)
of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and purified polyribosyl-ribitol-
phosphate capsular polysaccharide (PRP) of Haemophilus
influenzae type b (Hib), covalently bound to tetanus toxoid. It
also contains three types of inactivated polio viruses (type 1:
Mahoney strain; type 2: MEF-1 strain; type 3: Saukett strain).
The tetanus and diphtheria toxoids are obtained by
formaldehyde treatment of purified Corynebacterium
diphtheriae and Clostridium tetani toxins. The acellular pertussis
vaccine components are obtained by extraction and purification
from phase I Bordetella pertussis cultures, followed by
irreversible detoxification of the pertussis toxin by
glutaraldehyde and formaldehyde treatment, and formaldehyde
treatment of FHA and PRN. The diphtheria toxoid, tetanus
toxoid and acellular pertussis components are adsorbed onto
aluminium salts.
The surface antigen of the HBV is produced by culture of
genetically-engineered yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)
which carry the gene coding for the major surface antigen of the
HBV. This HBsAg expressed in yeast cells is purified by several
physicochemical steps. The HBsAg assembles spontaneously, in
the absence of chemical treatment, into spherical particles of 20
nm in average diameter containing nonglycosylated HBsAg
polypeptide and a lipid matrix consisting mainly of
phospholipids. Extensive tests have demonstrated that these
particles display the characteristic properties of the natural
HBsAg.
The three polioviruses are cultivated on a continuous VERO cell
line, purified and inactivated with formaldehyde.
The Hib polysaccharide is prepared from Hib, strain 20,752 and
after activation with cyanogen bromide and derivatisation with
an adipic hydrazide spacer is coupled to tetanus toxoid via
carbodiimide condensation. After purification the conjugate is
adsorbed on aluminium salt, and then lyophilised in the
presence of lactose as stabiliser. Infanrix hexa™ meets the
World Health Organisation requirements for manufacture of
biological substances, of diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and
combined vaccines, of hepatitis B vaccines made by
recombinant DNA techniques, of inactivated poliomyelitis
vaccines and of Hib conjugate vaccines.
Infanrix hexa™ is indicated for primary and booster
immunisation against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B,
poliomyelitis and Haemophilus influenzae type b in infants from
the age of 6 weeks and may be given to infants who received a
first dose of hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
The primary vaccination schedule (such as 2, 3, 4 months; 3, 4,
5 months; 2, 4, 6 months; 3, 5 and 11 or 12 months; 6, 10, 14
weeks) consists of three doses of 0.5 ml. An interval of at least
one month should be respected between doses. If it is intended
to administer Infanrix hexa™ according to the EPI schedule
(Expanded Program on Immunisation; 6, 10, 14 weeks of age),
then the vaccinee must receive a dose of hepatitis B vaccine at
birth.
A 0.5 ml dose of the vaccine contains not less than 30 IU of
adsorbed diphtheria toxoid, not less than 40 IU of adsorbed
tetanus toxoid, 25 mcg of adsorbed PT, 25 mcg of adsorbed
FHA, 8 mcg of adsorbed pertactin, 10 mcg of adsorbed
recombinant HBsAg protein, 40 D-antigen units of type 1
(Mahoney), 8 D-antigen units of type 2 (MEF-1) and 32 D-
antigen units of type 3 (Saukett) of the polio virus. It also
contains 10 mcg of adsorbed purified capsular polysaccharide of
Hib (PRP) covalently bound to 20-40 mcg tetanus toxoid (T).
See – GlaxoSmith Kline (GSK) Confidential to regulatory
agencies file:http://ddata.over-blog.com/3/27/09/71/2012-
2013/confid.pdf
The Vaccine Resistance Movement is currently launching its
first ever educational DVD, the ‘Silent No More Project‘:
where-in parents of vaccine-injured children reveal intimate
details of the impact vaccines had on their child’s primary early
development. This ground-breaking event marked the first big
push forward following the recent, highly controversial ‘VRM
Vaccine Summit’
Related Articles:
VRM: GlaxoSmithKline Implicated In Systemic Clinical Drug
Trial Deception & Insider
Fraud http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=6838
VRM: The Rise of Mutagenic
Viruses http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=13124
VRM: Mandatory Vaccinatio ns – How They Will Be
Implemente dhttp://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=11806
VRM: The Autism
Report http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=10185
VRM: Worldwide Autism Study Direct link to
study:http://study.vaccineresistancemovement.org/
VRM: The Problem With Vaccines Part
1http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=488
VRM: Vaccine Clinic – A Concise Compendium To The
Problem With
Vaccineshttp://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=6278
VRM: The Problem With Vaccines Part 2 – Synergistic Effect
of Heavy Metal Toxicity On The
Body http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=6097
VRM: The Problem With Vaccines Part 3 – Synthetic Genomics
& The Death Of Natural
Immunity http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=6880
VRM: A Concise Compendium To The Problem With Vaccines
Part 3 – Synthetic Genomics & The Death Of Natural
Immunityhttp://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=7283
VRM: The Problem With Vaccines Part 4 – Primary Aspects of
Vaccine Toxicity Affecting
Body http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=8787
VRM: The Problem With Vaccines Part 5A – Detoxification &
Restoration of the
Body http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=8836
VRM: The Problem With Vaccines Part 5B – Detoxification &
Restoration of the
Body http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=8847
VRM: PCV Vaccine Exposed – Breeding Ground For
Staphylococcus
Aureushttp://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=9431
VRM: Pandemic Preparedness & The Dark Agenda
Aheadhttp://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=9460
VRM: Primary Reasons Not To Get The Flu
Shothttp://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=12642
VRM: The Flu
Report http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=9226
VRM: Vaccine
Ingredients http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=979
VRM: Safe Alternatives to
Vaccines http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=662%EF%B
B%BF
VRM: Family Charts Gradual Decline Of
Daughterhttp://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=3156
VRM: Health Matters Part
1 http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=6719
VRM: Health Matters Part
2 http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=6746%EF%BB%B
F
VRM: Alternative Cancer Cures That
Workhttp://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=3729
VRM: Pregnancy
Tips http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=3270
VRM: H1N1 Shot Reactions –
Miscarriageshttp://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=943
VRM: The Vanishing Sperm
Count http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=4639
VRM: H1N1 Vaccine Surplus From 2009 Reveals Growing
Distrust of Gov’t & WHO
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=4969
VRM: Flu Death Statistics – WHO & The Big Lie
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=784
VRM: Vaccine Industry Deception, Propaganda & Media
Collusion
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=197

Global Influenza Strategy 2019, 20130 WHO launches new

global influenza strategy 11 March 2019
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/311184/978924
1515320-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

WHO unveils sweeping

reforms in drive
towards “triple billion”
targets
6 March 2019
News Release

Geneva

WHO today announced the most wide-ranging reforms in the Organization’s history to
modernize and strengthen the institution to play its role more effectively and efficiently as the
world’s leading authority on public health.

The changes are designed to support countries in achieving the ambitious “triple billion”
targets that are at the heart of WHO’s strategic plan for the next five years: one billion more
people benefitting from universal health coverage (UHC); one billion more people better
protected from health emergencies; and one billion more people enjoying better health and
well-being.

These changes include:

Aligning WHO’s processes and structures with the “triple billion” targets and
the Sustainable Development Goals by adopting a new structure and
operating model to align the work of headquarters, regional offices and
country offices, and eliminate duplication and fragmentation.

Reinforcing WHO’s normative, standard-setting work, supported by a new

Division of the Chief Scientist and improved career opportunities for scientists.

Harnessing the power of digital health and innovation by supporting countries

to assess, integrate, regulate and maximize the opportunities of digital
technologies and artificial intelligence, supported by a new Department of
Digital Health.

Making WHO relevant in all countries by overhauling the Organization’s

capabilities to engage in strategic policy dialogue. This work will be supported
by a new Division of Data, Analytics and Delivery to significantly enhance the
collection, storage, analysis and usage of data to drive policy change in
countries. This division will also track and strengthen the delivery of WHO’s
work by monitoring progress towards the “triple billion targets” and identifying
roadblocks and solutions.

Investing in a dynamic and diverse workforce through new initiatives including

the WHO Academy, a proposed state-of-the-art school to provide new
learning opportunities for staff and public health professionals globally. Other
measures include a streamlined recruitment process to cut hiring time in
half, management trainings, new opportunities for national professional
officers, and previously-announced improvements in conditions for interns.

Strengthening WHO’s work to support countries in preventing and mitigating

the impact of outbreaks and other health crises by creating a new Division of
Emergency Preparedness, as a complement to WHO’s existing work on
emergency response.

WHO, And European Vaccine Action Plan 2015–2020 (2014)

http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/257575/64wd15e_EVAP
_Rev1_140459.pdf

Information sheet – European Vaccine Action Plan 2015–

2020
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/276659/EVAP-ENG.with-
front.pdf

World Cancer Day: action for protection against cervical

cancer
01-02-2019
Get the facts, get the HPV vaccine: the personal story of an HPV vaccination
advocate

Cervical cancer is among the most common types of cancer affecting women in the WHO
European Region, with 69 000 new cases and 30 000 deaths estimated for 2018 alone.
Yet unlike most other types of cancer, it is vaccine-preventable.
On World Cancer Day, WHO/Europe aims to raise awareness that timely vaccination
against human papillomavirus (HPV) in combination with regular screening for cervical
cancer is the best way to protect girls’ futures from this tragic disease.

Success in controlling cervical cancer requires action by individuals, health-care

professionals and policy-makers at national and global levels to ensure that everyone
has easy access to the facts, the vaccines and the screening they need.

Building on a good start

Countries of the Region are making steady progress in protecting girls and women from
the most common HPV strains, which are responsible for up to 90% of cervical cancer
cases worldwide.

Starting with several countries that were among the first to introduce HPV vaccination
globally, 37 of the 53 European Member States now include HPV vaccination of girls
aged 9–14 in their routine immunization schedules. Some also offer the vaccine to boys
to help reduce transmission of the HPV strains in the vaccine.

Unfortunately, uptake of the vaccine varies. Some countries have reached over 90%
coverage of the target group, while others face challenges that have limited uptake to
20%. About 80% of those who are not vaccinated will be infected with 1 or more types of
the virus at some time in their lives. Girls who miss the opportunity to prevent HPV-
related cancers through vaccination will be vulnerable to contracting and passing on this
virus when they become sexually active.

Individual action: vaccine advocates

Being well informed and drawing appropriate health-related information from credible,
evidence-based sources empowers individuals to make decisions that can save their own
and others’ lives.

Laura Brennan was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer in 2017. Realizing that the
HPV vaccine could have protected her if she had received it, she decided to dedicate her
life to health advocacy to empower girls and their parents to choose vaccination against
HPV.

By actively encouraging parents to get the facts and by spreading the message that “the
HPV vaccine is the best tool we have to prevent this cancer from happening”, Laura has
greatly contributed to the efforts of the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) to reassure
parents about the benefits of the vaccine.

The work of Laura and advocates like her around the world is helping to ensure that
those who have the opportunity to vaccinate embrace it to protect their future and that of
their children.

National success: Portugal

Portugal was among the first countries in the world to introduce HPV vaccination after the
first HPV vaccine was licensed globally in 2006. In November 2018, the national
vaccination programme celebrated 10 years of success in sustaining about 90%
coverage among the designated target groups (birth cohorts of girls 1992–2006).

At the celebration, Dr Ana Leça from the Technical Commission on Vaccination explained
that Portugal owes its success to “support from the scientific community, health-care
workers and the media; a strategic communication campaign; and a well functioning
national immunization programme”.

Global goal: cervical cancer elimination

WHO recognizes cervical cancer as a public health problem. In May 2018, the WHO
Director-General announced a global call to action towards its elimination.

The Director-General highlighted the role of appropriate, good-quality, safe and

innovative technologies and strategies to reach all girls with HPV vaccination and to
reach women with cervical cancer screening, early diagnostics and effective treatment
services for both precancerous lesions and invasive cancers, including palliative care –
all embedded within universal health coverage strategies. Additional political commitment
globally will be decisive in making this a reality.

WHO/Europe works closely with countries in the Region to prepare for the introduction of
the HPV vaccine, improve access to vaccines at an affordable price, assess progress,
and address the spread of misinformation about the vaccine and the diseases it causes.

The virus and the vaccine

Virtually all cervical cancer cases are linked to genital infection with HPV. HPV is also
linked to other types of anogenital cancer, head and neck cancers, and genital warts in
both men and women. Most HPV infections are transmitted through sexual contact.

Three different vaccines are available to prevent infection, all of which have been proven
both safe and highly effective in reducing rates of precancerous cervical growths. Of the
3 vaccines, 2 also protect against genital warts.

Reinforcing a corporate approach to resource mobilization aligned with

strategic objectives and driving new fundraising initiatives to diversify WHO’s
funding base, reduce its reliance on a small number of large donors and
strengthen its long-term financial stability.

“The changes we are announcing today are about so much more than new structures, they’re
about changing the DNA of the organization to deliver a measurable impact in the lives of the
people we serve,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Our
vision remains the same as it was when we were founded in 1948: the highest attainable
standard of health for all people. But the world has changed, which is why we have articulated
a new mission statement for what the world needs us to do now: to promote health, keep the
world safe and serve the vulnerable.”

The new measures were developed following an extensive period of consultation with staff,
and were developed jointly by WHO’s Global Policy Group, which consists of the Director-
General and each of the organization’s six regional directors: Dr Matshidiso Moeti (Regional
Director for Africa), Dr Carissa Etienne (Regional Director for the Americas), Dr Poonam
Khetrapal Singh (Regional Director for South-East Asia), Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab (Regional
Director for Europe), Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari (Regional Director for the Eastern
Mediterranean) and Dr Takeshi Kasai (Regional Director for the Western Pacific).

WHO’s new corporate structure is based on four pillars which will be mirrored throughout the
organization.
http://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/events/events/2019/04/WHO-conference-NCDs-
Ashgabat-2019/news/news/2019/02/world-cancer-day-action-for-protection-against-cervical-
cancer

Questions and answers about HPV vaccination

http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/356841/Q-and-A_HPV_Parents_EN.pdf

Cervical cancer Vaccine WHO, AND EU Accelerating cervical cancer elimination Report by
the Director-General CERVICAL CANCER- A GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH PRIORITY 2018

http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB144/B144_28-en.pdf

The Programmes pillar will support WHO’s work on universal health coverage and healthier
populations. The Emergencies pillar will be responsible for WHO’s critical health security
responsibilities, both in responding to health crises and helping countries prepare for them.
The External Relations and Governance pillar will centralize and harmonize WHO’s work on
resource mobilization, communications. The Business Operations pillar will likewise ensure
more professionalized delivery of key corporate functions such as budgeting, finance, human
resources and supply chain.

The four pillars will be supplemented by the Division of the Chief Scientist at WHO
Headquarters in Geneva to strengthen WHO’s core scientific work and ensure the quality and
consistency of WHO’s norms and standards.

Underpinning the new structure, 11 business processes have been

redesigned, including planning, resource mobilization, external and internal
communications, recruitment, supply chain, performance management, norms
and standards, research, data and technical cooperation.
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/06-03-2019-who-
unveils-sweeping-reforms-in-drive-towards-triple-billion-targets

Report of the Inter-Departmental Group on Mother and Baby

Report of the Inter-Departmental Group on Mother and Baby Homes July 2014 Department of
Children and Youth Affairs

https://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/publications/20140716InterdepartReportMothBabyHomes
.pdf

report was commissioned by the Inter-Departmental Group for the Valuation of Life and
Health. Jonathan Wolffʼs work was supported by the UCL Ethics of Risk Project, funded by
the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/health-humanities/docs/IGVLH.pdf

Executive Summary Executive Summary ... • Referrals from Mother and Baby Homes
(approximately 3.9% of ... Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee

http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Executive%20Summary.pdf/Files/Executive%20Summary.pdf
STOP HPV Vaccine Trial

https://www.facebook.com/stoplivmoderhalskraeft

Irish Children Subjected to

Vaccination Experiments in 1930s

Managing Editor's Note: I'm pretty jaded after 18+ years in

the autism/vaccine injury community, but this story, this
horrible story knocked me for a loop. Imagine this horror
in a Catholic nation, on innocent children, under the "care"
of the religious and ask yourself, "Could that happen today
- in a world of medicine for profit?" Has the current
vaccination schedule ever been tested for cumulative
safety? Do we know the long term ramifications of
delaying common, survivable childhood disease such as
chicken pox and measles? Are children circa 2014
healthier than their peers decades ago? Also, Dan
Olmsted informed me that Diptheria was the first mercury
preserved vaccine in the 1930's.

Thousands of children in Irish care homes at centre of

'baby graves scandal' were used in secret vaccine trials in
the 1930s

Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on

Facebook

Scientists secretly gave 2,051 children and babies

diphtheria vaccine. They were used as guinea pigs for
drugs giant Burroughs Wellcome in 1930s. Academic
Michael Dwyer uncovered shock truth in old medical
records. He found no evidence of consent, nor of how
many died or were affected. Comes as Irish PM intervenes
from U.S. over scandal of mass baby grave. Hundreds of
babies are believed to have been buried at former baby
home

Enda Kenny says he's ordered his officials to examine 'if

there are others.'

Scientists secretly vaccinated more than 2,000 children in

religious-run homes in suspected illegal drug trials, it emerged
today.

Old medical records show that 2,051 children and babies in Irish
care homes were given a one-shot diphtheria vaccine for
international drugs giant Burroughs Wellcome between 1930 and
1936.

There is no evidence that consent was ever sought, nor any

records of how many may have died or suffered debilitating side-
effects as a result.
The scandal was revealed as Irish premier, Enda Kenny, ordered
ministers to see whether there are more mass baby graves after
the discovery that 800 infants may be buried in a septic tank
outside a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.
Children at Sean Ross Abbey in Tipperary are thought to have been used in secret
drug trials in the 1930s

Children's homes are under the spotlight since it emerged

that 796 babies may be buried at the former mother and baby
home at Tuam, Co. Galway - Enda Kenny has ordered officials
to see if other mass graves exist
The Irish premier has ordered his officials to examine the
possibility that there may be other mass graves, too

Posted by Age of Autism on June 07, 2014 at 05:46 AM in

Current Affairs, Nightmares, Vaccine Safet
The Global Policy Group stressed the role of working with partners. Dr Tedros said WHO
must develop a new mindset to seek out and build partnerships that harness the combined
strength of the global health community - both in the public and private sectors. One example
of this is a new Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-Being for All, under which 12
partner organizations are working together to achieve health-related Sustainable
Development Goals.

The Taioseach intervened from the United States yesterday to

say that he had ordered his officials to 'see what the scale is,
what's involved here, and whether this is isolated or if there are
others around the country that need to be looked at.'
Michael Dwyer, of Cork University’s School of History, found the
child vaccination data by trawling through tens of thousands of
medical journal articles and archive files.
He discovered that the trials were carried out before the vaccine
was made available for commercial use in the UK.
Homes where children were secretly tested included
Bessborough, in Co. Cork and Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Co.
Tipperary, both of which are at the centre of the mass baby
graves scandal.
Other institutions where children may also have been vaccinated
include Cork orphanages St Joseph’s Industrial School for Boys,
run by the Presentation Brothers, and St Finbarr’s Industrial
School for Girls, run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

In Dublin, it is believed that children for the trials came from St

Vincent’s Industrial School, Goldenbridge, St Joseph’s School for
Deaf Boys, Cabra, and St Saviours’s Dominican Orphanage.
But Mr Dwyer said: 'What I have found is just the tip of a very
large and submerged iceberg.
'The fact that no record of these trials can be found in the files
relating to the Department of Local Government and Public
Health, the Municipal Health Reports relating to Cork and Dublin,
or the Wellcome Archives in London, suggests that vaccine trials
would not have been acceptable to government, municipal
authorities, or the general public.
'However, the fact that reports of these trials were published in
the most prestigious medical journals suggests that this type of
human experimentation was largely accepted by medical
practitioners and facilitated by authorities in charge of children’s
residential institutions.'
Horror: The scandal of the babies in the mass grave was
discovered by local historian, Catherine Corless
Innocence: Academic Michael Dwyer found out about the
secret drugs trials by going through old medical records -
children from the Sean Ross Abbey home in Tipperary,
pictured, are thought to have been involved

A spokesman for GSK – formerly Wellcome – said: 'The activities

that have been described to us date back over 70 years and, if
true, are clearly very distressing.
'We would need further details to investigate what actually took
place, but the practices outlined certainly don’t reflect how
modern clinical trials are carried out. We conduct our trials to the
same high scientific and ethical standards, no matter where in the
world they are run.'

A spokeswoman for the Sisters of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and

Mary, the order that ran Bessborough and Sean Ross Abbey,
said that like GSK, they would also welcome an independent
inquiry.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin called on the Irish government
to add vaccine trials into the investigative remit of any inquiry into
the mother and baby homes.
He said: 'We need to start with an independent investigation into
the mother and baby homes which would be followed by a wider
separate investigation into the vaccine testing.'

Historian Catherine Corless, whose discovery of the suspected

mass baby grave at Tuam was revealed by the Mail earlier this
week, said her study of death records for the St Mary's home run
by Catholic Bon Secours nuns from 1925-1961 pointed to the
existence of the mass grave.

Children's homes in Ireland were often the only place where a woman pregnant out
of wedlock could go
Children were looked after by nuns and often adopted abroad - now it seems they
were used in drugs trials, too
The Irish PM interrupted a trade visit to San Francisco to order an
inquiry in the Tuam home and others, saying that Dublin must
decide what is the 'best thing to do in the interest of dealing with
yet another element of our country's past.'
St Mary's was one of several such 'mother and baby' homes for
'fallen women' who had become pregnant outside marriage in
early 20th century Ireland.
Another such institution was the Sean Ross Abbey in Tipperary,
was where Philomena Lee gave up her son for adoption in the
1950s. Her story was made into the Oscar-nominated film
'Philomena' last year.
The 'mother and baby' homes accommodated women who were
ostracised from their own families and had nowhere else to turn.
Under conservative Catholic teaching of the time, children born
outside of marriage were not baptised and were therefore denied
a Catholic burial on consecrated ground.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2650475/More-mass-baby-graves-Ireland-Prime-
Minister-Enda-Kenny-orders-investigation-memorial-800-dead-babies-
planned.html#ixzz33u7e6Bte

Danish health literacy campaign restores confidence in

HPV vaccination
https://gco.iarc.fr/today/data/factsheets/populations/994-who-
europe-region-euro-fact-sheets.pdf

VRM: Birth of Medical & Scientific Dictatorship – Future

Scenarios
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=997
VRM: H1N1 Bio-weaponry Incorporated
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=884
VRM: Aids & The WHO Connection – Criminal Intent
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=1749
VRM: Morgellons Syndrome & Chemtrails
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=839
VRM: Council On Foreign Relations 10/16/09- Major Influence
on Government Vaccine Policy
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=1880
VRM: Closed Door CDC Meeting Reveals Industry Cover-up
Of Heavy Metal Toxicity In Vaccines
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=5935
VRM: The Rockefeller Foundation Drafts A Post-Pandemic
Scenario
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=5102
VRM: World Health Organization & Vaccine Manufacturers
Implicated In Massive H1N1 Financial Scam Involving
Kickbacks & Cover-ups
http://vaccineresistancemovement.org/?p=4610
VRM Live – 01/28/11: Vaccine Resistance Movement founder
Joel Lord discusses Synthetic Genomics, cloned cell vaccine
technology & the death of natural immunity, gutter
journalism & Dr. Wakefield’s imminent vindication with
‘Truth to Power’ host Paul Mabelis.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/empradio/2011/01/28/truth-to-
power-thursday
VRM Live - 11/04/10: Vaccine Resistance Movement
founder Joel Lord lays out the whole vaccine process with
Paul Mabelis; including heavy metal toxicity,
synergy, pregnancy issues & the basic principles of natural
health at risk.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/show.aspx?userurl=empradio&ye
ar=2010&month=11&day=05&url=truth-to-power-thursday
VRM Live - 09/24/10: Vaccine Resistance Movement
Founder Joel Lord & activist/radio host Jesse Calhoun lay it
all out tonite. Topics include the VRM Worldwide Autism
Study, Scientific/Medical dictatorship, Natural Rights &
Vaccine Industry fraud exposed. Special thanks to host Paul
Mabelis.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/empradio/2010/09/24/truth-to-
power-thursday
If you appreciate the efforts to bring this
information forward do consider making a donation. Any
amount, no matter how small will help enable me to carry on
this invaluable research. See Paypal link on the VRM
website (click on ‘Donate’ tab in upper right corner). Thank you
all.
http://whale.to/vaccine/vrm.html

Child Abuse Vaccine Trials

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Confidential to regulatory agencies,
http://ddata.over-blog.com/3/27/09/71/2012-2013/confid.pdf

Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Vaccine Trials Inquiry Questionnaire

http://childabusecommission.ie/vaccinetrials/documents/Questionnaire8.pdf

Vaccine Trials Rulings and Directions

http://childabusecommission.ie/vaccinetrials/documents/COMMISSION%20TO%20INQUI
RE%20INTO%20CHILD%20ABUSE%20INVESTIGATION%20COMMITTEE%20VACCI
NE%20TRIALS%20DIVISION%20RULING%20DATED%205th%20JUNE,%202003.pdf

CICA-Executive Summary

http://www.childabusecommission.ie/rpt/pdfs/CICA-Executive%20Summary.pdf

Ferriter Report- Page Report by Dr Diarmaid Ferriter, St. Patrick’s College, DCU

http://www.childabusecommission.ie/rpt/pdfs/CICA-VOL5-07.pdf

An Assesment of Health Status Children Detained In Irish Industrial Schools 1940 to

1983

http://www.childabusecommission.ie/rpt/pdfs/CICA-VOL5-06A.pdf

Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse Act, 2000, the Commission published its First
Interim Report on 22nd of May, 2001.

http://childabusecommission.ie/publications/documents/Interim_Report.pdf

The Second Interim Report of the Commission was published on 30th November, 2001.

http://childabusecommission.ie/publications/documents/InterimReport2.pdf

child abuse The Third Interim Report of the Commission was published on 30th January,
2004.

http://childabusecommission.ie/publications/documents/abuse.pdf

Vaccine Trials Rulings and Directions To Download a Ruling please click on the
Reference Number. Reference Number Description VACCINE TRIALS DIVISION
RULING DATED 5th JUNE, 2003

This ruling sets out the decision of the Vaccine Trials Division of the Investigation
Committee (the Division) on the following applications for legal representation heard at a
procedural hearing of the Division held in public on 30th May, 2003

http://childabusecommission.ie/vaccinetrials/documents/COMMISSION%20TO%20INQUI
RE%20INTO%20CHILD%20ABUSE%20INVESTIGATION%20COMMITTEE%20VACCI
NE%20TRIALS%20DIVISION%20RULING%20DATED%205th%20JUNE,%202003.pdf

Committee – Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse 18 January, 2005

http://childabusecommission.ie/events/documents/CC-
PressRelease1000Client%20Jan2005.pdf
A Position Paper on Identifying Institutions and Persons under the Commission to Inquire
into Child Abuse Act 2000

http://childabusecommission.ie/events/documents/Position%20Paper%20-
%20070504.pdf

Judge Ryan's Statement

http://childabusecommission.ie/events/documents/Chairperson%20Address%20-
%20070504.pdf

Statement of Chairperson, Mr. Justice Sean Ryan on news of the death of

Ms. Christine Buckley, institutional abuse campaigner and co-founder of
the Aislinn Centre

11th March, 2014

“I am greatly saddened to learn of the death of Ms Christine Buckley. Her contribution to

the understanding of institutional abuse of children going back for so many years cannot
be overestimated. At considerable personal cost she brought to public attention some of
the most painful and disreputable wrongs that happened to children with the authority of
the State. She was an indefatigable champion of those who were abused as children and
disbelieved as adults. Ms Buckley worked tirelessly over many years to achieve justice and
she leaves a legacy of achievement. The nation owes her an enormous debt of gratitude
and respect.

On a personal level, Ms Buckley was a pleasure to meet and to deal with. In difficult and
sensitive circumstances in the Child Abuse Commission, she always behaved in a most
courteous and professional manner.

My deepest sympathies go to Ms Buckley’s family on their loss.”

Vaccine Trials records dismantlement

23rd August, 2012

The Commission has commenced the administrative process that will lead to its eventual
closure.

One of the initial stages of this process is the dismantlement of the records of the Vaccine
Trials Division of the Commission whose work ceased in 2003 following a High Court ruling
that the work of the Division was ultra vires the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse
Act 2000.
A key element of this dismantlement process is the return of records supplied to the
Vaccine Trials Division to their original sources. The Commission has commenced this
process.

Ireland on child sexual abuse, the Law Reform Commission Report (1990) and the Report of
the Kilkenny Incest Investigation Team (1993). While both reports recommended mandatory
reporting

Settlement of 3rd Party Legal Representation Costs

The Commission wishes to notify all parties who may be entitled to legal representation
costs, for matters which were the subject of inquiry by its Investigation Committee, that
the deadline for submission of fees, from their legal representatives, is Friday, 28
October, 2011.

After this time, no costs will be considered or processed by the Commission, which is the
statutory body with sole authority in these matters.

The Comission has taken this decision in order to facilitate the timely completion of its
work and so it can plan, accordingly, for adequate resources to meet any outstanding
liabilities. The Costs Team will write this week to all solicitors on record with it, if costs
have not yet been settled, to advise of this decision.

The Commission published its report in May 2009 and before and since then, has settled
legal costs as it went along. As such, ample time has been allowed to all parties to
formulate their reasonable costs.

Commission Report in Irish Sign Language

Extracts from the Commission's Report, as well as the Executive Summary, are now
available in Irish Sign Language. The Report is on DVD and a copy of same can be
obtained from the "Catholic Institute for Deaf People", or from the "Irish Deaf Society".
This version of the Report contains the Commission's findings in relation to the following
institutions:

Mary Immaculate School for Deaf Children, Beechpark

St. Mary's School for Deaf Girls, Cabra
St. Joseph's School for Deaf Boys, Cabra

To obtain a copy, please contact Mr. Liam O'Dwyer of the Catholic Institute for Deaf
People, at (01) 8300 522 or via their website - www.cidp.ie, or Ms. Pauline McMahon of
Deaf Communications Ltd., at (086) 257 3366, or via their website -
www.deafcommunications.net.

COMMISSION REPORT IN IRISH SIGN LANGUAGE

The Commission is working with the “Catholic Institute for Deaf People” to produce
relevant extracts from its report, as well as the Executive Summary, in Irish Sign
Language. The purpose is to assist the deaf community access information about the
Commission’s findings in relation to children who were hearing impaired and in residential
institutions during the relevant period. It is expected that this version of the Report, on
disk, will be available from end-November 2009. All queries in relation to this should be
directed to Mr. Liam O’Dwyer at the Institute.
Contact details for the Institute are:

Ph: (01) 8300 522

Email: info@cidp.ie

Web: www.cidp.ie

http://childabusecommission.ie/index.html

Investigation Committee Public Hearing

http://childabusecommission.ie/about/documents/DAY_234_Public_BrNolan_112906.PDF
Investigation Committee Public Hearing- ISPCC
http://childabusecommission.ie/about/documents/public_transcript_day228_gilligan_june
202006.pdf

Investigation Committee Public Hearing- Department of Education and Science

http://childabusecommission.ie/about/documents/transcript_public_day226_McManus_13
th_june_2006.pdf
Investigation Committee Public Hearing- St. Conleth's Reformatory School, Daingean
http://childabusecommission.ie/about/documents/Day224publicHughes060606.PDF
Investigation Committee Public Hearing- Sisters of Charity
http://childabusecommission.ie/about/documents/Day223publicONeill060106.pdf
https://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/publications/20140716InterdepartReportMothBabyHo
mes.pdfhttps://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/publications/20140716InterdepartRepo
rtMothBabyHomes.pdf

MOTHER AND BABY HOMES

COMMISSION OF INVESTIGATION

A Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and a

representative sample of County Homes has been established by
Order of Government.
The Commission would like to hear from anyone who was resident in
or who worked in any of the Mother and Baby Homes or County
Homes which are the subject of the investigation. We would also like
to hear from people who have personal knowledge about the homes,
for example, family members of residents, regular visitors or those
who supplied services to the homes.
We welcome written submissions and our Confidential Committee will
also meet in person with a number of former residents, employees
and others with relevant information to hear their experiences.
Please see the Commission’s Terms of Reference and a list of the
homes which it is investigating.
Also see Latest News
We are unable to investigate any institution that is not part of our
Terms of Reference.
Our Terms of Reference do not allow us to assist any individual in
resolving their identity or in tracing a birth relative.

Notice- 5th February 2018

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation is tasked
with investigating and reporting on the burial arrangements of
children and mothers who died while resident in the institutions within
our remit. We are currently investigating the burials of a large number
of children who died while resident in Bessboro Mother and Baby
Home in Cork between 1922 and 1998.
The Commission would like to hear from anyone who has personal
knowledge, documentation or any other information concerning the
burial arrangements and/or burial places of children who died in
Bessboro in this time period. We welcome written submissions on or
before 1st April 2018 by post or email to:
By email at : info@mbhcoi.ie
By post: Mother and Baby Homes,
Commission of Investigation,
73 Lower Baggot St,
Dublin 2
or
P.O. Box 12626, Dublin 2.

http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MB
H.nsf/page/index-en
Notice- 22nd January 2019
Fourth Interim Report
Katherine Zappone TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has today
(22nd January 2019) published the Fourth Interim Report of the
Commission on Mother and Baby Homes. The Government agreed to the
Commission's request for an extension of the time for delivery of its reports.
The reasons for this request are set out in the Commission's Fourth Interim
Report.
Letter to Minister with 4th Interim Report
http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MBH.nsf/page/LPRN-B8NKR21571322-
en/$File/Letter%20to%20Minister%20with%204th%20Interim%20Report.pdf
Fourth Interim Report on the Commission of Mother and Baby Homes This
means that the new deadline for delivery of the Commission's reports is 17th
February 2020.
http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MBH.nsf/page/LPRN-B8NKCP14472722-
en/$File/4th%20Interim%20Report%20december%202018.pdf

Notice- 22nd January 2019

Fourth Interim Report
Katherine Zappone TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has today
(22nd January 2019) published the Fourth Interim Report of the
Commission on Mother and Baby Homes. The Government agreed to the
Commission's request for an extension of the time for delivery of its reports.
The reasons for this request are set out in the Commission's Fourth Interim
Report.
Letter to Minister for Children and Youth Affairs
Fourth Interim Report on the Commission of Mother and Baby Homes
This means that the new deadline for delivery of the Commission's reports is
17th February 2020.

http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MBH.nsf/page/LPRN-B8NKCP14472722-
en/$File/4th%20Interim%20Report%20december%202018.pdf

Notice- 22nd January 2019

Children's Burial Ground, Sean Ross Abbey
The Commission has organised a Geophysical Survey to be conducted on
the site identified as the children's burial ground in Sean Ross Abbey in
order to determine the nature of burials at this site. The survey will start on
Wednesday, 23 January 2019, and is expected to take approximately one
day. Further investigations may be required depending on the outcome of
this survey.

The company on site has been engaged specifically by the Commission to

carry out the survey and will be unable to answer queries on any other
aspect of the Commission’s work. Any such queries should be addressed
directly to the Commission.
Notice- 9th July 2018
Children's Graveyard, Tuam
The Commission has now completed the work required to reinstate the
grassed surfaces on this site. Grass re-growth will take some time. Barriers
have been erected around the site to protect the surface from damage. These
will be removed in due course.
The Commission's involvement in the site has now ceased. Any queries in
relation to it should be addressed to Galway County Council.

Notice- 5th February 2018

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation is tasked with
investigating and reporting on the burial arrangements of children and
mothers who died while resident in the institutions within our remit. We are
currently investigating the burials of a large number of children who died
while resident in Bessboro Mother and Baby Home in Cork between 1922
and 1998.
The Commission would like to hear from anyone who has personal
knowledge, documentation or any other information concerning the burial
arrangements and/or burial places of children who died in Bessboro in this
time period. We welcome written submissions on or before 1st April
2018 by post or email to:
By email at : info@mbhcoi.ie
By post: Mother and Baby Homes,
Commission of Investigation,
73 Lower Baggot St,
Dublin 2
or
P.O. Box 12626, Dublin 2.

Notice- 5th December 2017

Katherine Zappone TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has today
(5th December 2017) published the Third Interim Report of the Commission
on Mother and Baby Homes. The Government agreed to the Commission's
request for an extension of the time for delivery of its reports. The reasons
for this request are set out in the Commission's Third Interim Report.
Third Interim Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes
This means that the new deadline for delivery of the Commission's reports is
17th February 2019.
http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MBH.nsf/page/LPRN-ATSF5N1111226-en/$File/MBHThirdInterimReport.pdf

Notice- 26th September 2017

The Commission has decided to remove the hoarding around the excavation
site at the children's burial ground in Tuam, Co Galway. This is being done
for health and safety reasons. The hoarding will be removed on Wednesday
27th September 2017. This work will not affect the surface of the site,
which is secure.

Notice- 11th April 2017

Katherine Zappone TD, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has today
(11 April 2017) published the Second Interim Report of the Commission on
Mother and Baby Homes.
Second Interim Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes.
Notice- 3rd March 2017
http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MBH.nsf/page/LPRN-ALCFND1238712-
en/$File/MBHCOI%202nd%20Interim%20Report.pdf

The Commission has completed its test excavation of the Tuam site.
The stratigraphic survey which was conducted in October 2015 identified a
particular area of interest and identified a number of sub surface anomalies
that were considered worthy of further investigation. These were further
investigated by a test excavation in November/December 2016 and in
January/February 2017. Test trenches were dug revealing two large
structures. One structure appears to be a large sewage containment system
or septic tank that had been decommissioned and filled with rubble and
debris and then covered with top soil. The second structure is a long
structure which is divided into 20 chambers. The Commission has not yet
determined what the purpose of this structure was but it appears to be related
to the treatment/containment of sewage and/or waste water. The
Commission has also not yet determined if it was ever used for this purpose.
In this second structure, significant quantities of human remains have been
discovered in at least 17 of the 20 underground chambers which were
examined. A small number of remains were recovered for the purpose of
analysis. These remains involved a number of individuals with age-at-death
ranges from approximately 35 foetal weeks to 2-3 years. Radiocarbon dating
of the samples recovered suggest that the remains date from the timeframe
relevant to the operation of the Mother and Baby Home (the Mother and
Baby Home operated from 1925 to 1961; a number of the samples are likely
to date from the 1950s). Further scientific tests are being conducted.
The Commission is shocked by this discovery and is continuing its
investigation into who was responsible for the disposal of human remains in
this way. Meanwhile, the Commission has asked that the relevant State
authorities take responsibility for the appropriate treatment of the remains.
The Coroner has been informed.

Notice- 30th January 2017

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation conducted a test
excavation at the site of the Children's Burial Ground/Memorial Garden
located in the Dublin Road Housing Estate Tuam, Co. Galway in
October/November 2016.
This excavation will be continued for a further two to three weeks starting
on 30th January 2017.

Notice - 24th November 2016

The Commission wishes to inform everyone concerned that the closing date
for applications to meet the Confidential Committee is Wednesday, 1 March
2017. You may contact the Confidential Committee on Freephone 1800 806
688.
Notice - 30th September 2016
Test excavation at Tuam
The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation has arranged for
a test excavation at the site of the Children's Burial Ground/Memorial
Garden located in the Dublin Road Housing Estate, Tuam, Co. Galway. Site
works will begin on the 1st of October and last for approximately 5 weeks.
A sample of the site will be excavated by a team of specialist Archaelogists
lead by a Forensic Archaelogist. Works are taking place with the full co-
operation of An Garda Síochána.
The purpose of the excavation is to resolve a number of queries that the
Mother and Baby Homes Commission has in relation to the interment of
human remains at this location. This excavation will focus on timeline and
stratigraphy. A fraction of the site will be excavated through test trenches,
the location of which have been informed by a Geophysical Survey carried
out at the site in October 2015.
The excavation team has been engaged by the Commission for the purpose
and, under the conditions of confidentiality, will not be in a position to
answer any queries on this or any other aspects of the Commission's work.
Any such queries should be addressed directly to the Commission.
Residents and local groups are being informed of the impact of the planned
excavation with assistance from Tuam Garda Station.
The Commission is grateful to the Gardaí and Galway County Council, the
owners of the site, for their assistance. Neither is in a position to answer
questions on this or any other aspects of the Commission's work.
Press queries may be addressed to:
Ita Mangan
01 6445027
imangan@mbhcoi.ie

Notice - 12th May 2016

The Commission has now chosen the County Homes it proposes to
investigate and these are as follows:

1. St Kevin's Institution (Dublin Union)

2. Stranorlar County Home, Co Donegal (St Joseph's)
3. Cork City County Home (St Finbarr's)
4. Thomastown County Home, Co Kilkenny (St Columba's)

Notice - 8th October 2015

A Geophysical Survey will be conducted on the site of the graveyard at the
Dublin Road Housing Estate, Tuam, Co. Galway on behalf of the
Commission on Friday 9th October 2015. The survey will be conducted
with the consent of Galway County Council, who are the owners of the site.
The survey will involve the use of non-invasive methods. It will be
conducted over the surface of the ground inside the current boundaries of
the graveyard. The sub surface of the site will not be disturbed.
The purpose of the survey is to detect the presence of possible sub surface
anomalies. Ground Penetrating Radar, Magnetometry and Electrical
Resistivity remote sensing methods will be used.
It is expected that work on site will take no more than one day, weather
permitting.
The company on site have been engaged specifically by the Commission to
carry out the survey and will be unable to answer queries on any other
aspect of the Commission’s work. Any such queries should be addressed
directly to the Commission.

http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MB
H.nsf/page/Latest%20News
-en

(l to r, Professor Mary E. Daly, Judge Yvonne Murphy, Dr William Duncan)

Chairperson and Commissioner

Judge Yvonne Murphy

Commissioners
Professor Mary E. Daly
Dr William Duncan
MOTHER AND BABY HOMES COMMISSION OF
INVESTIGATION

Terms of Reference
 STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS.

S.I. No. 57 of 2015

————————

COMMISSION OF INVESTIGATION (MOTHER AND BABY HOMES

AND CERTAIN RELATED MATTERS) ORDER 2015
2 [57]
S.I. No. 57 of 2015

COMMISSION OF INVESTIGATION (MOTHER AND BABY HOMES AND

CERTAIN RELATED MATTERS) ORDER 2015

WHEREAS, pursuant to section 3(1) of the Commissions of Investigation Act

2004 (No. 23 of 2004), the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, with the
approval of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, made a proposal to
the Government for the establishment of a commission to investigate the matters
specified in Article 3 of the following Order and to make any reports required
under that Act in relation to its investigation;

AND WHEREAS the Government by decision made on 8 January 2015

considered those matters to be of significant public concern;

AND WHEREAS a draft of the following Order has been laid before each House
of the Oireachtas, together with a statement of the reasons for estab-lishing the
commission, and a resolution approving that draft has been passed by each such
House;

NOW, the Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by sections 3

and 7(2)(a) of the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 (No. 23 of 2004),
hereby order as follows:

1. This Order may be cited as the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby
Homes and certain related Matters) Order 2015.

2. In this Order “Act” means the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 (No. 23
of 2004).
• 3. A commission is hereby established to—
◦ (a) investigate the matters, which are considered by the Government to
be of significant public concern, referred to in the terms of reference
(the text of which is, for convenience of reference, set out in the
Schedule) of the commission, and
◦ (b) make any reports required under the Act in relation to its
investigation.
• 4. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs is—
◦ (a) specified as the Minister of the Government responsible for oversee-
 ing administrative matters relating to the establishment of the com-
mission, for receiving its reports and for performing any other func-
tions given to him or her under the Act, and
◦ (b) authorised to appoint the member or members of the commission.
Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in “Iris Oifigiúil”
of 20th February, 2015.
[57] 3
▪ SCHEDULE

Terms of Reference for the Commission of Investigation (Mother and Baby

Homes and certain related Matters) Order 2015

Establishment of Commission, etc

(1) The Commission is directed to investigate and to make a report to the Minister
for Children and Youth Affairs in accordance with the provisions of Section 32 of
the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 (No. 23 of 2004) on the following
matters in relation to the Mother and Baby Homes listed in Appendix 1:

◦ I. To establish the circumstances and arrangements for the entry of single

women into these institutions and the exit pathways on their leaving
these institutions; this to include consideration of the extent of their
participation in relevant decisions;
• II. To establish the living conditions and care arrangements experienced by
residents during their period of accommodation in these institutions,
including by reference to the literature on the living conditions and care
experienced by mothers and children applying more generally dur-ing the
period;
• III. To examine mortality amongst mothers and children residing in these
institutions (to determine the general causes, circumstances, and rates of
mortality) and to compare it to the literature on mortality amongst such
other groups of women and children as might be relevant;
• IV. To investigate post-mortem practices and procedures in respect of chil-dren
or mothers who died while resident in these institutions, including the
reporting of deaths, burial arrangements and transfer of remains to
educational institutions for the purpose of anatomical examination;
◦ V. To establish the extent of compliance with relevant regulatory and
ethical standards of the time of systemic vaccine trials found by the
Commission to have been conducted on children resident in one or
more of these institutions during the relevant period (including, inter
alia, vaccine trials conducted using vaccines manufactured by Bur-
roughs Welcome in 1960/61, 1970 or 1973);
• VI. To examine arrangements for the entry of children into these insti-tutions in
circumstances when their mother was not also resident at the time of their
entry;
• VII. For children who did not remain in the care of their parents, to exam-ine
exit pathways on leaving these institutions so as to establish pat-terns of
referral or relevant relationships with other entities, and in particular to
 identify-
▪

◦ (a) the extent to which the child’s welfare and protection were con-
sidered in practices relating to their placement in Ireland or abroad;
◦ (b) the extent of participation of mothers in relevant decisions, including
▪ (i) the procedures that were in place to obtain consent from
mothers in respect of adoption, and
▪ (ii) whether these procedures were adequate for the purpose of
ensuring such consent was full, free and informed; and
◦ (c) the practices and procedures for placement of children where there
was cooperation with another person or persons in arranging this
placement, this to include where an intermediary organisation
arranged a subsequent placement;
• VIII. To identify, in the context of the specific examinations at (I) to (VII)
above, the extent to which any group of residents may have systemati-cally
been treated differently on any grounds [religion, race, traveller identity or
disability];
• IX. The Commission shall not seek to provide an account of any individual case
in such manner as to intervene in any effort by any individual to resolve
their identity or trace a birth relative.

(2) The investigation shall cover the period from 1922 to 1998 but the Com-
mission may reduce the “relevant period” in respect of any component part or
institution if it considers it appropriate to do so.

(3) The Commission shall establish a Confidential Committee to provide a forum

for persons who were formerly resident in the homes listed in Appen-dix 1, or who
worked in these institutions, during the relevant period to provide accounts of their
experience in these institutions in writing or orally as informally as is possible in
the circumstances. Subject to the requirements of Section 8 of the Act, the
Commission may appoint persons it deems to be appropriately qualified to be
members of the Confidential Committee.

(4) The Confidential Committee shall-

• (a) operate under the direction of and be accountable to the Commission,
• (b) provide in its procedures for individuals who wish to have their identity
remain confidential during the conduct of the Commission and its sub-
sequent reporting, and
▪
• (c) produce a report of a general nature on the experiences of the single women
and children which the Commission may, to the extent it con-siders
appropriate, rely upon to inform the investigations set out in Article 1.

(5) The Commission shall complete the report or reports required in relation to its
investigation no later than 36 months from the date of its establish-ment, with the
exception of the reports required by Articles (4) and (11) of this Order which
should be completed within 18 months from the date of its establishment.

(6) The Commission may include in its reports any recommendation that it
considers appropriate, including recommendations in relation to relevant matters
identified in the course of its investigation which it considers may warrant further
investigation in the public interest. In any event, on the completion of the Report
on the wider social and historical context required under Article (11) the
Commission shall report to the Minister on whether it considers specific matters
not included in the existing scope may warrant further investigation as part of the
Commission’s work in the public interest.

(7) In order to assist public understanding the Commission should provide in its
reports an outline of the archival and other sources of most relevance to these
issues and the nature and extent of the records therein, together with the
challenges and opportunities in exploiting these sources for the purpose of further
historical research or examination.

(8) In this order, except where the circumstances otherwise requires-

• “care arrangements” includes institutional practice with regard to the health,
safety, welfare and interests of mothers and children;
• “intermediary organisation” means a person or persons involved in arrang-ing
the further placements of such children;
• “literature” references to literature are intended to include grey literature1;
• “living conditions” means the everyday experience and circumstances of a
person's life, including access to food, accommodation, clothing and basic
living facilities;
• “placement” means the institutional practice for the placement of children other
than with a natural parent(s) for the purposes of adoption, fostering,
boarding out or other care arrangements;
1
Grey literature refers to the body of materials that cannot be found easily through
conventional channels, such as publishers, but which is frequently original and
usually recent. Examples of grey literature include technical reports from
government agencies or scientific research groups, working papers from research
groups or committees, white papers, or preprints.
6 [57]
• “residents” means single women and children accommodated in the listed
Homes for the purpose of receiving maternity and infant care services; and
• “single women” means pregnant girls or women and mothers who were not
married, or were widows or were separated from their husbands.
Appointment of Members

(9) The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has appointed her Honour Judge
Yvonne Murphy as Chairperson of the Commission and Dr William Duncan and
Prof. Mary E. Daly as members of the Commission.

Commission’s Working Methodology

(10) The Commission shall adopt and implement an appropriate working meth-
odology or framework to ensure that any report required in accordance with the
Act is completed within the period specified in Article (5) above.

(11) The methodology or framework to be applied shall include a literature based

academic social history module to establish an objective and compre-hensive
historical analysis of significant matters. The Commission shall, as it considers
appropriate, rely on this analysis as evidence to inform its investigations and to
assist the Commission in framing its findings and conclusions within the wider
social and historical context of the relevant period. This analysis shall detail:

◦ A. Family and societal attitudes and responses to pregnancy and child-

birth amongst single women;
◦ B. The role played by religious orders, civil society, the State, families
and partners/fathers in relation to single women and their children;
◦ C. The economic and social situation and experiences of single women
and their children, including by reference to economic and social
cir-cumstances more generally applying;
◦ D. The types of institutional settings (e.g. mother and baby homes,
county homes, private nursing homes, homes for infants or children)
where single women and their children, or other children, were
accommodated;

◦ E. The role and significance of different types of institution and their

inter-relationships;
◦ F. Organisational arrangements for the management and operation of
these different types of institutions;
◦ G. The involvement of state authorities in legislating for, supporting,
financing or regulating different types of institution;
▪

◦ H. The conditions pertaining and the welfare of those accommodated in

different types of institution, including by reference to conditions
elsewhere and levels of welfare more generally applying;
◦ I. The typical pathways experienced by single women and their children
 on leaving the different types of such institutions including the role
played by other institutions (e.g. adoption societies, homes for
infants or children and Magdalen laundries); and
◦ J. This analysis should be informed by the comparative situation in a
sample of comparable countries during the relevant period.

(12) The Commission shall, as it considers appropriate, rely on the information

and findings from the social history module and such other relevant infor-mation
as may be available to the Commission, to:
◦ (a) identify a basis for appropriate comparators in its investigations under
Article 1(I) to (VIII), and
◦ (b) inform the selection of a representative sample of institutions as per
Article 2 of Appendix 1.

(13) The Commission shall exercise discretion in relation to the scope and
intensity of the investigation it considers necessary and appropriate, having regard
to the general objectives of the investigation, including the need for the
investigation to be prompt and thorough in accordance with the State’s obligations
under international human rights law.

(14) In performing its functions the Commission should tailor the processes and
methodologies to the individual components of its investigations so as to achieve
effective investigations in the most timely and cost effective man-ner possible. In
particular the Commission shall have the discretion to use such sampling
techniques or selection of samples as it may determine.

(15) In prioritising those issues which should be most urgently addressed in its
investigations, the Commission should, in general and as it considers appropriate,
take account of relevant information and findings from pre-vious investigations, in
particular those investigations already undertaken in the completion of the
following Reports:
◦ a. Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse: Interim Reports and Final
Report (2009)
◦ b. Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of
State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries (2013)
◦ 8 [57]
◦ c. Report on three clinical trials involving children and babies in insti-
tutional settings 1960/61, 1970 and 1973: Chief Medical Officer
(1997)
◦ d. Report of Dr Deirdre Madden on Post Mortem Practice and Pro-
cedures: (2005)
▪ Appendix 1 — Institutions

(1) Mother and Baby Homes as follows:2

• 1) Ard Mhuire, Dunboyne, Co. Meath;
• 2) Belmont (Flatlets), Belmont Ave, Dublin 4;
• 3) Bessboro House, Blackrock, Cork;
• 4) Bethany Home, originally Blackhall Place, Dublin 7 and from 1934 Orwell
 Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6;
• 5) Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, Tuam, Co. Galway;
• 6) Denny House, Eglinton Rd, Dublin 4, originally Magdalen Home, 8 Lower
Leeson St, Dublin 2;
• 7) Kilrush, Cooraclare Rd, Co. Clare;
• 8) Manor House, Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath;
• 9) Ms. Carr’s (Flatlets), 16 Northbrook Rd, Dublin 6;
• 10) Regina Coeli Hostel, North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7;
• 11) Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary;
• 12) St. Gerard’s, originally 39, Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1;
• 13) St. Patrick’s, Navan Road, Dublin 7, originally known as Pelletstown, and
subsequent transfer to Eglinton House, Eglinton Rd, Dublin 4; and
• 14) The Castle, Newtowncunningham, Co. Donegal.
2
Historical and official sources may refer to these institutions by various names,
and in some cases the Homes may have moved premises during their period of
operation.
▪

(2) County Homes

A representative sample of those County Homes selected by the Commission as

both fulfilling a function with regard to single women and their children similar to
the institutions at (1) above and where the extent of the operation of this function
is considered to merit their inclusion for the purposes of the investigations set out
at Article 1(I) to (VIII) above having regard to factors such as the number of
relevant births, the duration of such operations and the typical length of
accommodation period of these mothers and children.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Government

17 February 2015.

ENDA KENNY,

Taoiseach.

STATEMENT OF COSTS AND TIMEFRAME FOR INVESTIGATION

The Commission of Investigation is required to make a final report to the Minister

for Children and Youth Affairs within three years of establishment. In addition,
Article 5 of the Terms of Reference requires that the reports from the Confidential
Committee and the Social History module would be completed within eighteen
months.

The Government has noted that salaries, fees and other administrative costs,
exclusive of third party legal costs, are estimated to be in the order of €21.5m.
This includes the funding necessary to meet the set-up and operational needs of
the Commission which will have its offices at 73 Lower Baggot Street, and the
demands attaching to administrative oversight of the Commission within the
Department of Children and Youth Affairs. This estimate is based on the
assumption that the Commission completes its final report within three years.

An initial allocation of €6m has been secured to meet costs arising in 2015. A
three person Commission will be supported by a legal team and an executive team.
The staffing complement of the Commission will reflect the scope of the Terms of
Reference and the ambitious timeframe for completion of its reports. The
Commission will have the scope, under section 8 of the Act, to appoint persons
with relevant professional expertise and specialists skills to assist its
investigations. Guidelines concerning third party costs will be prepared by the
Minister in consultation with the Commission and with the consent of the Minister
for Public Expenditure and Reform.

http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MBH.nsf/page/Terms%20of%20Reference-en
JFM RESEARCH An investigation into Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes and
related institutions is ... their mothers’ care. ... indicate that keeping a child as an
unmarried
https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WG/righthealth/W
S/ARA_JFMR.pdf
More vaccine trials were kept secret by the State

Harney under pressure to order full investigation.

By Patricia McDonagh
Friday August 27 2010
THE Government was told about secret vaccine trials at least six years ago but has refused to
investigate them ever since.

The Irish Independent can reveal that the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline — the firm
that was behind controversial vaccine trials on children in state care during the 1960s and
1970s — handed over records relating to the tests to a child-abuse inquiry in 2004.

The revelations have piled pressure on Health Minister Mary Harney to launch an independent
probe into the contents of the documents.
The Department of Health admitted last night that its officials have been “in discussions” with
the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse about what to do with the records.

While the documents only show that “other vaccine trials” took place, it is so far not known
how many other people were involved, whether children in state care were used for the trials
or what medicines were tested.

Victims, adoption groups and opposition parties are now demanding a full investigation into
all the vaccine trials on children in state care.

GlaxoSmithKline declined to comment. Its silence has raised serious concerns about the
nature of the medical tests.

Those concerns have deepened as the department has so far failed to answer questions on
the issue.

This newspaper put a series of questions to Ms Harney’s officials this week. No

answers were forthcoming.
The questions included:

* How many vaccine trials in total were conducted?

* Were children in care used in the trials and what consent was given for this?
* What, if any, are the long-term medical effects of the trials on the victims?
* Why has the State refused to investigate the contents of the files?
* Why has the Department of Health still not made a decision on what to do with
the documents, despite being aware of them for a number of years?
As part of its work, the commission requested information on three confirmed trials carried
out by The Wellcome Foundation, a company that later merged with other firms to create
GlaxoSmithKline.

These trials involved 211 infants and babies and were carried out in mother and baby homes
and children’s residential homes across the country in order to test new vaccines.

It remains unclear whether the parents or guardians of the children involved had consented
to the trials or whether the company had complied with Irish licensing legislation.

As well as these tests, details of further, previously unknown trials, were also handed over to
the commission by GlaxoSmithKline. A brief — and unreported — paragraph in the
commission’s Third Interim Report, published in January 2004, confirmed the receipt of the
additional documents.
“The documentation discovered by GlaxoSmithKline also disclosed a considerable amount of
information in relation to other vaccine trials in the State,” the report said.

Documents

It stated that no decision had been taken on whether the extra trials could be investigated.
In the end, no such investigation took place.

In June 2006, Ms Harney instructed departmental officials to discuss with the commission
what should be done with the documents.

A spokeswoman for the commission confirmed that no decision was ever made.

The commission is not at liberty to release the files publicly without the approval of the
department.

Adoption agencies last night led calls for an independent inquiry into the vaccine trials.

Susan Lohan, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance, said: “I’m flabbergasted that the
State and the adoption authority didn’t know the extent to which vaccine trials were being
used in this country.

“I am calling on the Government to ask the commission to hand over this new evidence to an
independent inquiry, where it can be investigated immediately and authoritatively.”

Fine Gael children’s spokesman Charlie Flanagan said: “The Government needs to direct the
commission to hand over this new evidence to be examined by the Oireachtas Health
Committee.

“Then, based on the outcome of this, a national investigation needs to be held in order to
gauge the extent of the vaccine scandal.”

A spokeswoman for the commission said last night that it was prevented from investigating
the vaccine trials on foot of two court cases taken by the doctors involved in the tests.

The vaccine module of the commission was closed down by Health Minister Mary Harney in
2006 on foot of that legal action.

Ms Harney said the issue of the vaccine trials was no longer a matter for the commission,
which issued a report last year and is no longer investigating abuse claims.
She refused to comment the calls for an independent inquiry or for the referral of the
documents to the Oireachtas Health Committee.

– Patricia McDonagh

Irish Independent

http://www.paddydoyle.com/more-vaccine-trials-were-kept-secret-by-the-state/
The Irish Times – Monday, August 23, 2010
ÉIBHIR MULQUEEN in Ennis
THE FUTURE of the Catholic Church was a question which went beyond the effects the abuse
scandals had on it in Ireland, historian Diarmaid Ferriter said at the concluding session of the
Merriman Summer School yesterday.

Speaking on the theme “From Cullen to Connell: the rise and fall of the Irish Catholic
Church”, Prof Ferriter, professor of modern history in UCD, said Ireland was a very small
jewel in the Catholic Church crown in the context of its sex abuse scandals.

It would take time to absorb the sheer enormity of what was in the Ryan, Murphy and Ferns
reports, but the issues were not unique to Ireland and were now being raised in other
countries.

“It may well be more pronounced within Ireland for a whole host of different reasons that are
relevant to the 19th and the 20th century in terms of the Catholic culture that was
developed,” he said.

The Vatican’s refusal to accept the resignations of the two Dublin auxiliary bishops had been
a public humiliation for Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, “which is ironic given what he has done
and the way he tried to change the language that was used before”. He believed Archbishop
Martin might become a fall guy to the structure, power and control of the church. “Diarmuid
Martin can be jumping up and down until he is blue in the face but there are certain things
he won’t be able to change on his own.”

Another issue was how long the church could sustain its structures as they were, he said.
“They don’t have priests. It has been admitted that they are going to need more and more
lay involvement to keep parishes running. The question is, ‘Are they [lay people] actually
going to get any say?’

“Thankfully, it is not the job of the historian to predict the future.”

The future of much historical research would be within a comparative international

framework, he added. “We have tended to look at ourselves in too insular a way and we do
tend to think we are unique in all sorts of ways. And we are in some ways, but in other ways
we are not. That is going to be a serious research project for a generation, I think.”

In regard to the church’s historical role, he said while Ireland had appeared to be a Catholic
country for Irish people after independence, the reality of how it had been experienced was
more nuanced.

Instances of dissent and difference were identifiable both privately and at government level,
he said. Attempts to promote mass public devotion, such as during the centenary
celebrations of Catholic emancipation in 1929 and the Eucharistic Congress of 1932, had a
legitimising effect, but the State had had its way in many church-State tussles.

A 10-year campaign ending in 1935 to have legislation introduced regulating public dances
had raised the question of why there were so many unlicensed dances. “You have got to
remind yourself when you are talking about denunciations, there was a hell of a lot to be
denounced.

“There is a case to be made that a lot of Irish people remained unreadily anarchic in their
very daily behaviour.”

Paddy Doyle: We need to know if we were used as guinea

pigs
By Paddy Doyle
Friday August 27 2010
I can still smell iodine and surgical spirit as if it was under my nose as I write these words

IN recent weeks, new investigations carried out by the Irish Independent have raised the
question of whether or not children placed in industrial schools were subjected to vaccine
trials by multinational drug companies.

This issue has been put to one side since the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, under
the chairmanship of Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, was prohibited from including it in its original
terms of reference.

Following a successful court hearing taken by doctors named as having taken part in the
experimental vaccination, the issue was allowed to fade into the background.

I was ‘sentenced to be detained’ in St Michael’s Industrial School for Junior Boys, Cappoquin,
Co Waterford, in 1955, following the deaths of both my parents within a five-week period of
each other.
My memories of St Michael’s are vivid.

Everything about it — the smells, the beatings, the deprivation, as outlined in my book ‘The
God Squad’,and, 20 years later, in the ‘Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child
Abuse’, or the Ryan Report — is as live to me today as it was in 1955, when I walked through
the front door under a granite slab with the inscription ‘Suffer the Little Children’ carved into
it.
During my time in Cappoquin, myself and many of the other boys were taken to “the
dispensary” — a small room filled with a variety of mainly brown bottles and other bits and
pieces one associates with doctors and medicine.

I can still smell iodine and surgical spirit as if it was under my nose as I write these words.
The dirty brown stain of the iodine is also as clear to me today as it was back in the 1950s.

I cannot say with any degree of certainty that I was subjected to experimentation by vaccine.

What I can say is that the nuns in whose care I was placed by the District Court in Wexford
were willing participants in assisting the doctor who visited St Michael’s to administer
injections, just as they were willing to tell me and the other boys: “Stop crying like a baby
just because you got a little needle.”

The recent publicity concerning vaccine trials carried out on children in industrial schools is a
cause of major concern to all of us who were given injections or “nice medicine to swallow”.

Questions abound as to what these injections were for and what was that “nice medicine”?

Were we, as children, being subjected to experimentation that might benefit a multinational
drug company and would most certainly benefit the Sisters of Mercy — in that they
undoubtedly would have received payment for allowing drugs to be administered to children
in their care?

It is time now for the Department of Health to say clearly whether or not small children were
used as guinea pigs.

It is also imperative we know what these drugs were and what, if any, short or long-term
side effects one was likely to have experienced as a consequence of their administration.

The Sisters of Mercy and all religious orders who managed industrial schools have
a duty and a moral as well as an ethical obligation to give an absolute assurance
that they did not aid or abet in drug trials or that they have not, over the years,
withheld information from those of us who were in their care.
They must also assure us that multinational drug companies did not pay them for
‘providing’ children to be used in vaccine trials.
Our Government too has a duty to release any documentation in their possession that shows
children were experimented on without the consent of parents or without the consent of
those acting in loco parentis.

Were the people charged by the State with the care of children paid to allow drugs to be
administered to children without questioning?

What long-term effects might these drugs have on the children or indeed on their children?

There is something chilling in the final paragraph of the trials published in the ‘British Medical
Journal’ 1962 that reads: “We are indebted to the medical officers in charge of the children’s
homes. . . for permission to carry out this investigation on infants under their care.”

A report compiled in 2000, ‘Report On Three Clinical Trials Involving Babies and Children in
Institutional Settings, 1960/61, 1970 and 1973’, names the various places where these drug
trials took place.

But I take the view that, if drug trials were carried out in institutions that are named in the
report, what about institutions where drug trials may well have been carried out but have not
yet been identified?

I find it difficult to believe that the three known clinical trials that were carried out on children
in the 1960s and 1970s are the whole story.

We know all too well that abuse of children in institutional care was systemic in practically
every industrial school in the State.

Can we be expected to believe that children’s homes referred to in the ‘British Medical
Journal’ were the only places where drug trials were carried out? I find that hard to believe.

What I do know is that abuse in all its sordid ways thrives on secrecy, whether that abuse is
physical, psychological, sexual, emotional or carried out at the behest of drug companies —
who identified children in institutions as being an ‘easy target’ for them to use without having
to get parental consent.

Whatever the truth is regarding vaccination trials, it behoves the drug companies, the
religious orders and the Government to investigate this matter urgently and to cease what
many of us see as yet another cover-up involving religious orders and the abuse of children.
Those of us who were in industrial schools and who might have been subjected to
experimentation would be indebted to the drug companies, the religious orders and the
Government if they were to let us have the truth of what really happened.

Nothing but the truth, the whole truth, will suffice.

– Paddy Doyle

Irish Independent

http://www.paddydoyle.com/paddy-doyle-we-need-to-know-if-we-were-used-as-
guinea-pigs/
THE Government must disclose all that is known about controversial vaccine trials carried out
on children in the care of the State in past decades.

Our initial reports centred on Mari Steed, now aged 50, and three others who are to take
legal action in the US courts against a multinational pharmaceutical company, on whose
behalf the trials were conducted.

Ms Steed was subjected to the trial in the Sacred Heart Convent in Bessborough, Co Cork,
when she was between nine and 18 months old, without her mother’s consent.

There were a number of such trials. The first involved 58 children in five children’s homes
and the object was to discover what might happen if four vaccines, diphtheria, whooping
cough, tetanus and polio, were combined in one overall 4-in-1 shot.

Another known trial involved 35 children who were administered the intra-nasal rubella
vaccine.

A third involved 53 children in five institutions. It compared commercially available batches of

the 3-in-1 vaccine with a modified vaccine prepared for the trial.

The subjects of these trials are understandably upset to discover that they were effectively
used as guinea pigs when they were little more than babies, but at least they know the
nature of the vaccines administered to them and the clear scientific purpose of what were,
effectively, experiments.

Today we report that records of previously unknown vaccine trials were discovered years ago
by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and that there have been confidential
“discussions” about them for several years now, but mystery surrounds the nature of those
trials.
A number of questions need to be answered by the relevant government agencies, not least
of which are what was the nature of all the trials, how many children in state care were
subjected to them and what consent was sought?

Given the level of official reticence to date, an independent public inquiry may be needed to
get to the truth.

Irish Independent
27th August 2010
COMMISSION TO INQUIRE INTO CHILD ABUSE HELD AT 145-151 CHURCH
STREEET, DUBLIN ON TUESDAY, 11TH JANUARY 2005 - DAY 54 BEFORE
ORDINARY MEMBERS- MS. MARIAN SHANLEY, CHAIRPERSON And MR. FRED
LOWE, Principal Child Psychologist
http://www.childabusecommission.ie/events/documents/011105_Day_54.PDF
SHAME ON IRELAND”
THE TRUTH WILL OUT.
AS REQUESTED TIME AND TIME AGAIN FOR AN INDEPENDENAT BODY TO INVESTIGATE THE ABUSE
IN IRELAND. THE “COMMISSION INTO CHILD ABUSE” WAS A COMPLETE COVER UP. THE REDRESS
BOARD WAS A DISGRACE, WHEN A SURVIVOR REJECTED THEIR “AWARD” HE OR SHE WAS TOLD BY
THEIR LEGAL REPRESENTATIVE THE AMOUNT WOULD BE REDUCED. THE VACCINE TRIALS, ALSO
WERE PUSHED UNDER THE CARPET FOR FEAR OF A LAW SUIT. AGAIN IRELAND HAS SHOWN ITS
SELF FOR WHAT IT TRULY IS. ALL OF THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS WERE TO BE INVESTIGATED ALAS
THIS DID NOT TAKE PLACE AND HOW MUCH MONEY DID THE TAX PAYER HAVE TO FORK OUT.
C.0.R.I. WERE EXEMPT THEY MUST NOW BE MADE TO ACCOUNT FOR THEIR VILE ACTS OF DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE AND CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE. I AGREE WITH ROB, RE THEIR ASSETS ETC. THE WORLD
SHOULD ASK WHY? IT IS NOW TIME TO DEMAND A PROPER INQUIRIE. IRELAND HAS EGG ON ITS
FACE. WE NEED MORE JOURNALISTS TO EXPOSE THIS WRONG DOING.
There needs to be a full investigation! The Indenity deal made with C.O.R.I. needs to be revoked and
the Government need to take all their assets and Trust Funds, and other legal entities that they have
created to hide thier true wealth and distribute it!

Vaccine trial files will not be transferred to HSE

August 10, 2011
By Conall Ó Fátharta
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 – Irish Examiner.

FILES relating to controversial vaccine trials carried out on children at a Mother and Baby
Home run by the Sacred Heart Convent in Bessboro in Cork will not be transferred to the
HSE.
In a letter seen by the Irish Examiner to one of the victims of the trials, Maureen Downey
Hickey, who was later adopted to the US, the HSE confirmed that while it is to receive 15,000
adoption files from Bessboro, it “has been advised that immunisation records will continue to
be the responsibility of the order”.
The Irish Examiner reported last week that as the former adoption agency has not applied for
accreditation, and is not compelled to do so under the Adoption Act, its adoption files will
remain the private property of the order and cannot be inspected by the Adoption Authority.

More than 210 infants and babies, some 123 of whom were in the care of the state, took part
in three confirmed trials to test vaccines between 1960 and 1973.
A number of people sent to the US for adoption and adopted domestically have recently filed
requests under the Data Protection Act, asking for medical files and any evidence of their
participation in the trials run by the Wellcome Foundation — whose income came from British
drugs maker Burroughs Wellcome, which was later subsumed into GlaxoSmithKline.

Now adults, the participants say the drugs were given without parental consent and they
have spent years trying to access their medical files and pharmaceutical information.

The office of the Data Protection Commissioner confirmed it has been in touch with the
Sacred Heart Sisters Order and was satisfied it is the data controller in this instance and is
therefore subject to and has responsibilities under the Data Protection Act.

The Sisters of the Sacred Heart Order could not be contacted for comment last night.

One of the victims of the trials at Bessboro, Mari Steed, said it was “unacceptable” that files
containing her medical history could be deemed the private property of a religious order.

“The idea that immunisation records cannot be transferred with the adoption files and are
privately owned by the religious order in question is an absolutely unacceptable scenario,” Ms
Steed said. “They were merely the broker or subcontractor for my care. Ultimately, the state
contracted their services in shipping me to the USA.”

The Adoption Rights Alliance called on the Government to reinstate the inquiry and said
“questions must be asked as to why the Sacred Heart Adoption Society did not supply the
HSE with the files relating to vaccine trials”.

The Laffoy Commission on Child Abuse was investigating vaccine trials between 1940 and
1987 as part of a separate module.

However, the investigation was brought to a sudden halt after court action was taken by the
doctors involved in the trials.

Victim of vaccine trials says files are ‘locked up’

Saturday October 09 2010

A woman used in infancy as a “guinea pig” in controversial vaccinations has said all files
relating to the secret trials remain “in limbo” and are unable to be accessed as a result of a
legal injunction.

Mari Steed (50), an American woman whose experience of the secret four-in-one vaccine
trials was revealed by the Irish Independent in August, yesterday expressed grave concern
over the protection of the records relating to the trials conducted on institutionalised children
in the early 60s by the Wellcome Foundation, now GlaxoSmithKline.

The files had been handed over to the Ryan Commission, formerly the Laffoy Commission
into child abuse, by GlaxoSmithKline.

Mari Steed was involved in the first trial, which sought to find out what would happen if four
vaccines were combined in one jab.

“I got up to four different shots of the vaccine. My mother later told me that I reacted by
vomiting after one jab,” she said.

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) began investigating the vaccine trials in
2001. But, following legal action by two doctors involved in the trials, deemed to be too
elderly and frail to take part in a court case, the investigation by the Commission into this
aspect of how children in institutions were treated was brought to a standstill.

Ms Steed yesterday claimed the files were now “locked up” in the offices of the Commission.

“Nobody has done anything with these files. They are still in the offices of the Laffoy
Commission,” she said. “We don’t know what is going to happen — the files are in limbo and
nobody can access them.”

Ms Steed, along with several others, is currently preparing a class action in the US against
the drug company responsible for the tests.

Ms Steed, who was adopted by an American family at the age of 18 months and has lived in
the States ever since, was administered the vaccine while she and her mother resided at the
Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork, run by the Sacred Heart Convent.

– Nicola Anderson

Irish Independent

Mary Raftery at the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse

Residential Institutions Redress Board. A place of secrecy, exclusion and
bewilderment.
I have given evidence to the board on three occasions on behalf of
three patients, all victims of layers of abuse, in particular sexual. Two of
these have been under my care for over 10 years. All will bring their
pain and suffering to the grave.
I was not allowed to be present when they gave their evidence, nor
indeed were their partners, a friend, an advocate, no one of personal
significance.
They were alone. Alone in attempting to articulate their exposure to
regimes of unbridled rape and violence which lasted for years, at the
hands of sadistic sexual perverts answerable to no one. Alone in telling
about how their chance of a normal life was diminished from the
beginning. About how they learned to place no value on themselves,
and with their lives totally derailed following their release at 16 years
old, drifted from one crisis to another for the rest of their lives.
One patient was left alone, on the verge of a panic attack due to the
intensity of his fear, to tell the board of a past littered with criminal
behaviour, prison records, substance misuse, dysfunctional
relationships, mistrust of authority, and family breakdown.

I found the discomfort of waiting in a side room to give evidence, aware of my patients’ fears
and worries, unbearable. They dreaded getting a panic attack, a flashback to an incident of
abuse, a rush of uncontrollable anger that would alienate the chairman and jeopardise the
outcome.
In giving my sworn evidence I felt under time pressure, and worse, that I was an unwelcome
irritation slowing down the proceedings. An atmosphere of minimisation prevailed. It was
impossible to present a complete picture.

The “board” consisted solely of a judge and a medical doctor. On two occasions that doctor,
having had no experience of working with traumatised or abused children, let alone a
qualification in psychiatry, was nonetheless there for the purpose of contributing to a
judgment on the compensation deemed appropriate for each victim.
Not being a court, it is held in secret, away from the eyes of the community, and no
perpetrator of a crime is ever sentenced to a punishment.
No apologies can be offered as no one is there representing the religious orders responsible.
Justice for the victim is not the purpose, only financial compensation, which is capped to a
maximum of €300,000. (To date the average award paid out to 2,555 victims has been
€78,000.)
The award is conditional on them signing a secrecy agreement and a waiver on taking further
legal action. If the victims disclose the amount they were awarded or discuss the facts of
their case in public, they face criminalisation.
The wronged now accused of a crime! They can be fined up to €3,000 and can face a
summary jail sentence of six months. After a second disclosure, they face a fine not
exceeding €25,000 and a two-year jail sentence. Why the secrecy? It’s certainly not for the
benefit of the victim. There is emerging evidence that the Redress Board re-traumatises
victims.
One patient of mine used this analogy. “An adult, man or woman, abuses a child. It is their
‘secret’. To make sure the ‘secret’ is kept the adult will give the child money or sweets. They
buy silence. By making secrecy a condition upon payment, the board is doing exactly what an
abuser does to a child.”
The elements of restorative justice which are required for the restitution of balance and
healing are transparency instead of secrecy, formal apologies, the punishment of the
wrongdoers, and supreme efforts to compensate for damage done.
The Redress Board embodies none of these. Its role makes a mockery of the legal system,
and of the Goddess Themis, whose scales are the symbols of Right and Justice. It is my firm
belief that the Redress Board contravenes the most basic of human and civil rights. In short,
it represents a crime against humanity.
It should be abolished immediately and replaced by an open forum where the victim is not
only properly monetarily compensated, but where they can have their perpetrators named,
and the scales of justice balanced.

“The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) began investigating the vaccine trials in 2001. But,
following legal action by two doctors involved in the trials, deemed to be too elderly and frail to take
part in a court case, the investigation by the Commission into this aspect of how children in institutions
were treated was brought to a standstill.
http://www.childabusecommission.ie/publications/documents/abuse.pdf
My Name is Rita, and I also was experiment of Child Vaccine Abuse Fro the Age of 6 months until I was
12 years old I started getting the batch no of polio vaccine and tetanus 3 times a year as confirmed on
files I received from freedom of information act and I got in touch with child vaccine abuse board and
spoke with a miss Shannon and she never got back to me on the matter and 2 years later I was told
that they had abolished the vaccine trial,

The world is such a dreadful place with all of these lunatics that think they are running the world. We
had the swine flu false epidemic and now see loads of court cases to take action actions these vacines.
Yet now the flu shot which is been given out includes the swine flu shot. One elderly woman I spoke to
the other night did not even know the swine flu part had been added and now she is really sick from it.
Harney you are a real evil monster and should be tried for genocide crimes by the people of Ireland,
maybe it will happen yet. Now we also see Glaxo Smith Kline shutting down facilities is this like the
religious did, shut down and get out so the victims have a harder fight to get justice. Counsellor
Brendan Mansfield in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford works for Glaxo Smith Kline maybe all complaints
should be sent to him. By the way would this constitute a conflict of interest, we hear he is also the
shop steward at the Dungarvan plant. Where these counclilors gett he time to do their job while doing
another job is anybodies guess. No wonder the country is in the state its in. I would hope that the
drugs trial abuse victims make a complaint to him and show up his conflicting inerest in the pharma
connections in Ireland. Time to wage war on all these political conflictions
Mary Harney has betrayed state child abuse victims

Rita
October 14, 2010
Hello to all. My name’s Mark and I am the director of a possible future documentary in which I am
seeking participants who have been used unfairly, or believe they have been used unfairly in
vaccination experimentation. I am aware that some people on this site have horrific memories the
vaccination scandal and would love to hear from you. The e-mail
is vaccinationsdoc@hotmail.com. Please contact me for more details if interested. Your voices
deserve to be heard.

Frequently Asked Questions about Cancer, Simian Virus 40

(SV40), and Polio Vaccine
SV40 is a virus found in some species of monkey. Soon after its discovery in 1960, SV40 was found in
polio vaccine. More than 98 million Americans received one or more doses of polio vaccine during the
period (1955–1963) when some of the vaccine was contaminated with SV40. SV40 has been found in
certain types of human cancers, but it has not been determined that SV40 causes these cancers. The
majority of evidence suggests there is no causal relationship between receipt of SV40-contaminated
vaccine and cancer; however, some research results are conflicting and more studies are needed. For

• What is SV40?
• Why is there so much interest in SV40?
• Does polio vaccine being given in the U.S. today contain SV40?
• What about concerns that the testing methods used to screen oral polio vaccines could
have missed certain strains of SV40?
• Who received SV40-contaminated polio vaccine?
• Were any other people in the U.S. possibly exposed to SV40-contaminated vaccines?
• Is receiving contaminated vaccine the only way to become infected with SV40?
• SV40 is known to cause tumors in rodents. Have research studies found an association
between SV40 and cancer in humans?
• What steps have been taken by the government to see if SV40-contaminated vaccines
affected people's health?
• What has research found regarding the health effects of receiving SV40-contaminated
vaccine?
• Have research studies looked at the risk of cancer in children whose mothers received
SV40-contaminated polio vaccine?
• If I have one of these cancers, does it mean that SV40 caused it?
• Can I obtain a test to see if I am infected with SV40?
• What should I do if I received polio vaccine during 1955–1963?
• Where can I get more information about SV40?

What is SV40?
Simian virus 40, or SV40, was discovered in 1960. It occurs naturally in some species of monkeys,
though it does not typically cause symptoms or illness except in cases where the animal has chronic
problems with its immune system (Shah and Nathanson, 1976). In those cases, the animals develop
lesions associated with SV40 in their kidneys and brains (Newman et al., 1998).

SV40 is not related to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS in humans, or to simian immunodeficiency virus
(SIV), the virus that causes an AIDS-like disease in some monkey species.

Why is there so much interest in SV40?

Soon after its discovery in 1960, SV40 was identified in polio vaccine. It was found in the injected form
of the vaccine (IPV), not the kind given by mouth (OPV). At that time, rhesus monkey kidney cells, which
contain SV40 if the animal is infected, were used in preparing viral vaccines. Because SV40 was not
discovered until 1960, no one was aware that polio vaccine made in the 1950s could be contaminated.
In 1961, the virus was found to cause tumors in rodents (Eddy et al., 1961). That same year, the federal
government required that new stocks of polio vaccine be free of SV40. However, existing polio vaccine
stocks were not recalled and were used until 1963. When SV40 was discovered, researchers did not
know if the virus could negatively affect people's health. Many viruses that harm animals have no effect
on people because of the biological differences between animals and humans.

Interest in SV40 has increased in the last several years because the virus was found in certain forms of
cancer in humans, for instance mesotheliomas (rare tumors located in the lungs), brain, and bone
tumors (Carbone et al., 1994; Jasani et al., 2001). More recently, SV40 has also been found to be
associated with some types of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (Shivapurkar et al., 2002; Vilchez et al., 2002).

Does polio vaccine being given in the U.S. today contain SV40?
No, polio vaccines being used today do not contain SV40.

SV40 was completely removed from the seed strains of the vaccine viruses in the early 1960s.The polio
vaccine currently used in the U.S. (inactivated polio vaccine, or IPV) is no longer prepared in primary
rhesus monkey kidney cells. It is produced in human or African green monkey cell lines that have been
extensively tested for contaminants, including SV40.The poliovirus used in IPV is killed with
formaldehyde. This procedure also kills viral contaminants, such as SV40. Formaldehyde was also used
in the SV40-contaminated vaccine, but in 1961 researchers found that the process killed 99.99% of
SV40 and 1 in 10,000 SV40 particles survived (Hilleman, 1998).Today's testing methods are better. Any
live SV40 would be detected by these methods.

What about concerns that the testing methods used to screen oral polio vaccines could have
missed certain strains of SV40?
Oral polio vaccine (OPV, which is no longer recommended for use in the U.S. but is used elsewhere in
the world) differs from IPV because it contains weakened, rather than killed, poliovirus. Because it is a
live vaccine, formaldehyde or other inactivation agents were not used in producing OPV. The poliovirus
that was used to produce OPV was grown on monkey kidney cells. Screening for SV40 in the monkey
kidney cells used to produce OPV was implemented in the early 1960s after the virus was first
discovered. Manufacturers also treated the stocks of weakened poliovirus in order to remove any SV40
that might have been present in them.

A study (Rizzo et al., 1999) raised concern that some lots of OPV may have been contaminated with a
slow-growing SV40 strain that would not have been detected with the methods used to test it. However,
this study did not follow the actual testing protocol used to ensure that vaccine is free of SV40.
Subsequent studies (Minor et al., 2001) confirmed studies from the early 1960s (Melnick) showing that
the testing methods used were sufficient to detect even slower-growing strains of SV40. In addition,
researchers from the FDA used the very sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methodology to
search for SV40 DNA in OPV manufactured in the U.S. between 1972 and 1996 (the FDA only tested
vaccines produced as far back as 1972, because there were no existing lots of OPV at FDA that were
produced between 1962 and 1972). SV40 DNA sequences were not found in any of the vaccine lots
tested (Sierra Honigmann & Krause, 2000). OPV is no longer produced in the U.S.; if production were to
be resumed, it would continue to be under extremely strict conditions that eliminate the possibility of any
contamination with SV40.

Who received SV40-contaminated polio vaccine in the U.S.?

More than 98 million Americans received one or more doses of IPV (the injected form of the polio
vaccine) during the period (1955–1963) when some of the vaccine was contaminated with SV40.
However, not all doses of IPV were contaminated. It has been estimated that 10–30 million of the 98
million people who received a polio shot actually received a vaccine that contained SV40 (Shah and
Nathanson, 1976). In addition, about 10,000 volunteers who received an experimental oral polio vaccine
(OPV) between 1959–1961 may have been exposed to SV40 (the vaccine was later licensed in 1963,
subsequent to SV40 removal from the seed stock). All of the evidence to date indicates that after 1963,
all vaccines on the U.S. market were free of SV40.

Were any other people in the United States possibly exposed to SV40-contaminated vaccines?
Yes. SV40 was a contaminant of respiratory syncytial virus given to a few volunteers in an experimental
study of infection with the live virus (Shah and Nathanson, 1976). In addition, SV40 was also found in
adenovirus vaccines given to more than 100,000 young men in army camps in the 1950s and 1960s to
protect them from respiratory infections (Sherwood et al., 1961).
Is receiving contaminated vaccine the only way to become infected with SV40?
Receiving contaminated vaccine is not the only way to become infected with SV40. Data suggest that
SV40 has infected a small percentage of the human population independently of the polio vaccine. A
study of German medical students found that 12% had SV40 antibodies in 1952, before the introduction
of the polio vaccine (Geissler et al., 1985). Moreover, SV40 has been identified in people born in the
1980s and 1990s, well after the elimination of SV40 contamination from polio vaccines. This has led
some to consider that the virus may spread from person-to-person. Some laboratory workers may have
been exposed to SV40 (Horvath, 1965). It is not known whether people who live in countries with wild
rhesus monkeys also could be exposed to SV40. Exactly how SV40 is transmitted among humans and
how common it is among people in the U.S. population are unknown.

SV40 is known to cause tumors in rodents. Have research studies found an association between
SV40 and cancer in humans?
Yes. An association has been found between SV40 and certain types of cancer in humans. However,
though the virus or its DNA have been found in certain types of cancer, it has not been determined that
SV40 causes these cancers. Finding that two events are "associated" is not the same as establishing
that one event caused the other.

SV40 was linked with mesothelioma after tumors developed in hamsters that were injected with SV40
into the lungs, heart and abdomen (Cicala et al., 1993). Mesotheliomas are rare cancers usually located
in the lining of the lungs in humans and are associated with asbestos exposure. SV40 has been found in
47% to 83% of human mesothelioma tumors (Carbone, 1999). In addition, reports have documented an
association between SV40 and brain and bone tumors (Jasani, 2001).

Two recent studies also found an association between SV40 and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
(Shivapurkar et al., 2002; Vilchez et al., 2002). These studies identified the virus in 42 to 43 percent of
non-Hodgkin's tumors, while finding no SV40 in tissue from healthy study volunteers. Lymphoma is a
general word for cancers that develop in the lymphatic system – the tissues and organs that produce,
store and carry white blood cells that fight infection and other diseases. Hodgkin's disease is one type of
lymphoma; all others are called non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Lymphomas account for about 5 percent of
all cases of cancer in this country.

What steps have been taken by the government to see if SV40-contaminated vaccines affected
people's health?
When SV40 was discovered in 1960, researchers did not know if the virus could negatively affect health.
Many viruses that harm animals have no effect on people because of the biological differences between
animals and humans. However, to investigate the possibility, several federally funded studies were
carried out during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s to follow persons who received polio vaccines (the
results from some of these studies are discussed below). In addition, on January 27–28, 1997, the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes
of Health, and the National Vaccine Program Office sponsored an open public meeting with scientists
and physicians to discuss research findings on SV40. At the meeting they discussed available data and
determined that further research into the field of SV40 was needed (Brown and Lewis, 1998).

In 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) asked the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) to establish an independent
expert committee to review hypotheses about existing and emerging immunization safety concerns.
These reviews involve an assessment of factors such as the biologic mechanisms of the hypothesis,
alternative hypotheses, as well as the available scientific evidence to date. In 2002, the IOM
Immunization Safety Review Committee examined the existing scientific data on SV40-contaminated
polio vaccine and cancer. The committee did not recommend* review of the current polio vaccine
recommendations on the basis of concerns about cancer risks, because the vaccine in current use is
free of SV40. However, the committee recommended development of sensitive and specific blood tests
for SV40 and techniques for SV40 detection. When this has been done, the committee recommends
that pre-1955 samples of human tissue be tested for SV40. They also recommended further study into
how SV40 may spread among humans, and argued that additional studies of people who may have
received contaminated vaccine should not be done until technical (laboratory) issues are resolved.

What has research found regarding the health effects of receiving SV40-contaminated vaccine?
The majority of evidence suggests there is no causal relationship between receipt of SV40-
contaminated polio vaccine and cancer development; however, some research results in this area are
conflicting and more studies are needed. Since the discovery of SV40, several studies have been done
to compare cancer rates in groups of individuals known or strongly presumed to have received SV40-
contaminated polio vaccine to rates in persons known or strongly presumed not to have received SV40-
contaminated vaccine. A brief description of some of these studies follows.
• Two studies (De Rienzo et al., 2002; Emri et al., 2000) examined mesothelioma tissue
from a small number of patients in Turkey, where SV40-contaminated vaccines were not
used, and found no SV40. The researchers also examined mesothelioma tissue from a
small number of patients in the US and Italy, where SV40-contaminated polio vaccines
were used, and found SV40 in some of the specimens.

• In 1999, Fisher and colleagues reported increased rates of ependymomas, osteogenic

sarcomas, other bone tumors, and mesotheliomas among people who were potentially
exposed to SV40-contaminated polio vaccine. However, the number of cases in this study
was too small to draw any statistically valid conclusions.

• In 1998, the National Cancer Institute published findings from a study (Strickler et al.,
1998) that revealed that, after 30 years, there was no increased incidence of cancer in
persons who may have received vaccine containing SV40. The study used the National
Cancer Institute's SEER database, which contains information on more than 2.5 million
cancer cases in the U.S., and the Connecticut Tumor Registry, and included millions of
people exposed to contaminated poliovirus vaccine and decades of cancer incidence and
mortality data. Comparisons of the rates of cancer were made between persons who had
received SV40-contaminated vaccine as infants born in 1956–1962 and persons born in
1947–1952 and 1964–1969. This study looked specifically for types of rare cancers that
have been found to contain SV40 in recent cellular research (Carbone et al., 1994) and
found no significant increased incidence compared with persons who had not received
contaminated SV40 vaccine. The rare cancers included ependymomas (cancer of cells
found in developing fetal neural tubes from which the brain and spinal cord arise as a
baby develops), osteosarcomas (a type of bone cancer), mesotheliomas (a type of cancer
that originates in the tissue lining of the lung cavity) and brain cancers.

• Olin et al. (1998), conducted a long-term follow-up study of 700,000 people in Sweden
who received polio vaccine potentially contaminated with SV40 in 1957 as school-age
children. Their results revealed no increased cancer incidence between persons who
received vaccine containing SV40 and those who did not.

• Geissler (1988) analyzed German National Cancer Registry data to compare the
incidence of cancer in 885,783 persons born between 1959–1961 who received polio
vaccine that may have been contaminated with SV40 and compared it with 891,321
persons born between 1962–1964 who received SV40-free vaccine. These data
demonstrated that persons who received polio vaccine possibly contaminated with SV40
did not develop more tumors within a 20-year period than did those who received vaccine
that did not contain SV40.

• Mortimer (1981) studied cancer deaths of 1,073 persons born between 1960–1962 who
received oral poliovirus or inactivated poliovirus vaccine that contained SV40 when
newborn. The follow-up study over 17–19 years revealed no increased number of deaths
from cancer. In 2001, a 35-year follow-up study of this group was published. The study
found no deaths in the group due to tumors of the type that have been associated with
SV40 (Carroll-Pankhurst, 2001).
 • Fraumeni et al. (1970) followed 1,000 persons who had received SV40 contaminated
poliovirus vaccine within a few days after birth. The majority of these people received the
SV40-contaminated oral vaccine. At 8 years of age, no cancer deaths were identified in
the exposed group.

• Fraumeni et al. (1963) focused on a cohort of children age 6–8 years who received
inactivated poliovirus vaccine in 1955. A comparison was made based on whether
children received vaccine with high, low or no detectable amount of SV40 contamination.
Mortality rates from leukemia and all other cancers from 1950–1959 were compared
across the three groups. No differences in cancer rates were found for this period.

In summary, the majority of studies in the U.S. and Europe that compare persons known or strongly
presumed to have received SV40-contaminated polio vaccine with those known or strongly presumed
not to have received SV40-contaminated polio vaccine have not shown a causal relationship between
receipt of SV40-contaminated polio vaccine and cancer. It should be noted, however, that SV40
infection has been found in persons who did not receive SV40-contaminated polio vaccine and that for
some study participants it cannot be known with certainty whether or not they received SV40-
contaminated vaccine. Because of this, there may be errors in these studies that make it harder to
detect a true increased cancer risk associated with receipt of SV40-contaminated polio vaccine. In
addition, research is needed that focuses on the long-term consequences of SV40 exposure, as some
cancers like mesotheliomas typically occur later in life and would not have been detected in several of
the studies described above. Moreover, additional studies are needed which focus on the potential long-
term effect of SV40 exposure on health outcomes other than cancer (Strickler and Goedert, 1998).
Because the CDC takes this issue very seriously, the agency has asked an expert committee to review
the existing data on this topic and provide recommendations for future research.

Have research studies looked at the risk of cancer in children whose mothers received SV40-
contaminated polio vaccine?
Yes, two studies concerning maternal vaccination with SV40-contaminated vaccines and risk of cancer
in offspring have been conducted. Each study reported an association.

• Heinonen et al. (1973) reported a higher incidence of neural malignancies in children born
to mothers who received inactivated poliovirus during pregnancy. The prospective study
of over 50,000 women who were pregnant between 1959–1965 identified 24 malignancies
in their children during the first 4 years of life. The rate of malignancy was about two-fold
greater in children born to mothers immunized during pregnancy when compared with
children born to unimmunized mothers or mothers who received influenza or OPV
vaccines. Neural tumors accounted for most of the difference.

• Farwell et al. (1979) found that of 15 cases of medulloblastoma in children born in

Connecticut between 1956–1962, 10 were born to mothers exposed to SV40
contaminated polio vaccine while 5 were born to mothers unexposed. Interpretation of
these results, however, is hampered by the low response rates and uncertain accuracy of
vaccination histories by obstetricians (Strickler et al., 1998).

Additional studies are needed that focus on maternal vaccination with SV40-contaminated vaccines and
risk of cancer and other health effects in offspring.

If I have one of these cancers does it mean that SV40 caused it?
No. The possible role of SV40 in human cancers is not fully understood and is the topic of continued
research.

Can I obtain a test to see if I am infected with SV40?

Blood tests can identify if a person has antibodies to SV40, but no test for SV40 is commercially
available at this time. Research laboratories are currently refining the techniques used to detect SV40.
PCR (polymerase chain reaction) assays are currently in use to detect SV40 DNA segments. Because
of inconsistent results between laboratories, there is a need to develop a standard PCR assay (Levine
et al., 1998).
What should I do if I received polio vaccine during 1955–1963?
There are no recommended treatments or tests for persons that may have been exposed to SV40. If
you have concerns about your health, please make an appointment to see your health care provider.

Where can I get more information about SV40?

The Food and Drug Administration has been the federal government lead agency in answering
questions relating to SV40 in polio vaccine. You may call the FDA at the following number: 1 (800) 835-
4709.

References

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Biological Standardization Basel, Karger, 1998;94.

Carbone M, Pass HI, Rizzo P, Marinetti M, Di Muzio M, Mew DJ, Levine AS, Procopio A. Simian virus
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Carbone M. Simian virus 40 and human tumors: It is time to study mechanisms. Journal of Cellular
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Carroll-Pankhurst C, Engels EA, Strickler HD, Goedert JJ, Wagner J, Mortimer EA. Thirty-five year
mortality following receipt of SV40-contaminated polio vaccine during the neonatal period. British
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Cicala C, Pompetti, Carbone M. SV40 induces mesotheliomas in hamsters. The American Journal of
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De Rienzo A, Tor M, Sterman DH, Aksoy F, Albelda SM, Testa JR. Detection of SV40 DNA sequences
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Eddy BE, Borman GS, Berkeley W, Young RD. Tumors induced in hamsters by injection of rhesus
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Fisher SG, Weber L, Carbone M. Cancer risk associated with simian virus 40 contaminated polio
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Geissler E, Staneczek. W. SV40 and human brain tumors. Archiv für

Geschwulstforschung1988;58(2):129–134.

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Levine A, Butel J, Dorries K, Goedert J, Frisque R, Garcea R, Morris A, O'Neill F, Shah K. SV40 as a
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Newman JS, Baskin GB, Frisque RJ. Identification of SV40 in brain, kidney and urine of healthy and
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Olin P, Giesecke J. Potential exposure to SV40 in polio vaccines used in Sweden during 1957: no
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Rizzo P, Resta ID, Powers A, Ratner H, Carbone M. Unique strains of SV40 in commercial
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Sherwood RW, Buescher EL, Nitz RE et al. Effects of adenovirus vaccine in acute respiratory disease in
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Strickler HD, Rosenberg PS, Devesa SS, Hertel J, Fraumeni JF, Goedert JJ. Contamination of
poliovirus vaccines with simian virus 40 (1955–1963) and subsequent cancer rates.* Journal of the
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Vilchez RA, Madden CR, Kozinetz CA, Halvorson SJ, et al. Association between simian virus 40 and
non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Lancet 2002;359(9309):817–823.

Zimmermann W, Scherneck S, Geissler E. Quantitative determination of papovavirus IgG antibodies in

sera from cancer patients, labworkers and several groups of control persons by enzyme-linked
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Hygiene1983;254(2):187–196.

*Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links
do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal
Government, and none should be inferred. CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual
organization Web pages found at these links.

Page last modified: October 22, 2007

Content source: Immunization Safety Office
http://web.archive.org/web/20130514020005/http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/updates/archive/po
lio_and_cancer.htm

Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment

(CISA) Network Publications
Recurrent Guillain-Barre syndrome following vaccination.
https://watermark.silverchair.com/cir960.pdf?token=AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ys
gAAAjgwggI0BgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggIlMIICIQIBADCCAhoGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQM7EVt
doK_hmbxfqL5AgEQgIIB63J3F1g7P6ssShsNQITo72FoFFDnUkBrkhvpwecU8GQhCLSsJOx2C9l4TY5Z0YFhV_XnG
QxjWrcbfWMKp0eptxwXGpn8Qcu8s0FFveyftRUWrg2z3vBCc2x5NvW85DZjvpUhOlCRArxEjgEnJvOo_qiFOGOI7ka
SX5BIapoYiGihf2RngxJeTi4IHQWbCWRifuyvsrG2DWr7azeRRWo6Sb3YcslzAdfCa6bHcDudlRUweYOsW2aXp0t2u
Fs64Hu11adzAgyvg6aJfpY8UzXDImVN8DkJebhmPuqOEeq9F1kb3zeSIp1zTO5qmaMYQnLb3kW_GQj2sDPUbFaA
dsbaGogllvfNK10swMZKS8Ikw7T0v5UspZmjQj4qpBgSTDIdGXVqGvV_AvGXj1JMCZEiaJTWlo6qcMpsBXi9EbExyY
8vGGN7ucYeAvwcDJdN58Y8zvAXjdHhG1q9XWfwcR5XsQg0mNFcScOOf-
ckAxil6DLt2UjLODNX9lsNU9W5T6zsDdzgJiwLgfPXbCWC24WW9lAPQ2f1TnBgwe7r3HdrIFNK8rOVcACPhwekJJW
286RMFmTBaGfQpyRs9f4OuOXaeaT-1DAXJ_IMu9d-Txmn117AhPFnpgaFC_tzLPB7Mj6Qlcp9GLDiIYtsCx5a

Human Papillomavirus Vaccine and Risk of Anaphylaxis.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine (Gardasil® 9) 2017

https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/sites/default/files/publications/hpv9_fact_sheet_2017.pdf

The human papillomavirus vaccine and risk of anaphylaxis.

http://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC2527389&blobtype=pdf

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine _____ 1. What is HPV and the complications of
illnesses caused by HPV? HPV is a highly contagious virus that is spread by skin-to-skin
contact. It can infect the skin, mouth, rectum, anus, cervix, the skin on the penis, the area
around the vagina

http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/dhw_cpho_fs_hpv.pdf

WHO. INFORMATION SHEET OBSERVED RATE OF VACCINE REACTIONS Global Vaccine

Safety, Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals 20, avenue Appia, Ch-1211 Geneva 27 The
Vaccines HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS VACCINE June 2012 HPV_Vaccine sheet

human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV4). Each month signifies 30 days. This example shows
the risk- and control-length intervals for females who received 3 doses. Females who
received only 1 dose had 2-month (60-day) risk and control intervals. Females who received
2 doses had 4-month (120-day) risk and control intervals.

https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/tools/HPV_Vaccine_rates_information_sheet.pdf?ua=1

HPV (Human Papillomavirus) One-Time Vaccine ... - Interior Health

https://www.interiorhealth.ca/sites/Partners/ImmunizationResourcesTools/Documents/HPV_SCAN
_FORM.pdf
 HSE PROGRAMME ILLEGAL Guidelines for Staff School Immunisation Programme
https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/pubinfo/schoolprog/schoolguidelines20182019.pdf

Guidelines for VACCINATIONS in General Practice February 2018

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/infomaterials/pubs/guidelinesgp.pdf

5 day Immunization Safety Office, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion National Center for
Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases February 2011 ISO-Final-Scientific_Agenda-Nov-10
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/00_pdf/ISO-Final-Scientific_Agenda-Nov-10.pdf

PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE As a leader in immunization

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/00_pdf/iso.pdf

HSE TIME VACCINATIONS

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/hcpinfo/latentrant0818.pdf

Recommended vaccines for immunocompromised adults

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/hcpinfo/vacc4immcompa.pdf

Immunisation of Immunocompromised Persons

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/hcpinfo/guidelines/chapter3.pdf

School Immunisation Programme (Number of injections)

https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/whoweare/schoolhistory.pdf

Vaccines Work 2018 Version European Immunisation Week (EIW) is celebrated across the European
Region every April to raise awareness of the importance of immunisation for people’s health and well-
being. The theme for this year "Vaccines work"
https://www.hse.ie/eng/health/immunisation/vaccineswork/eiwfacts.pdf
WHO_ Global vaccine safety blueprint
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/70919/WHO_IVB_12.07_eng.pdf?sequence=1
WHO HPV Vaccine communication Special considerations for a unique vaccine 2016 update

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/250279/WHO-IVB-16.02-eng.pdf?sequence=1

WHO Serious adverse events associated with HPV vaccination December 2017
https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/HPV_vaccination_safety_report_AHTA_dec17.pdf?ua=1

Definition and Application of Terms for Vaccine Pharmacovigilance Report of CIOMS/WHO Working
Group on Vaccine Pharmacovigilance
https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/tools/CIOMS_report_WG_vaccine.pdf?ua=1

cines for use in the 2019-2020 northern hemisphere

influenza season
21 February 2019
It is recommended that egg based quadrivalent vaccines for use in the 2019-2020 northern
hemisphere influenza season contain the following:
• an A/Brisbane/02/2018 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
• an A(H3N2) virus to be announced on 21 March 2019*;
• a B/Colorado/06/2017-like virus (B/Victoria/2/87 lineage); and
• a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus (B/Yamagata/16/88 lineage).
It is recommended that the influenza B virus component of trivalent vaccines for use in the 2019-
2020 northern hemisphere influenza season be a B/Colorado/06/2017-like virus of the
B/Victoria/2/87-lineage.
 * In light of recent changes in the proportions of genetically and antigenically diverse A(H3N2)
viruses, the recommendation for the A(H3N2) component has been postponed.

https://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/recommendations/201902_recommendation.pdf?ua=1
Evolution of the influenza A(H5) haemagglutinin:
WHO/OIE/FAO H5 Working Group reports a new clade
designated 2.3.4.4
12 January 2015

Recent detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N8) in East Asia and Europe,
A(H5N8) and A(H5N2) in North America, and A(H5N6) in East and Southeast Asia, have
prompted the WHO/OIE/FAO H5 Evolution Working Group to review and update the H5
haemagglutinin (HA) clade nomenclature (1-4), which was last revised based on sequence data
available prior to December 2012 (4). Although a detailed report describing the update of the
existing nomenclature is in preparation, considering the high likelihood that these viruses will
continue to be detected and reported, timely communication of the new clade designation is
warranted. The phylogenetic analysis of H5 HA sequences from these viruses revealed extensive
divergence and indicated the need to update the clade nomenclature for H5N1, H5N2, H5N5,
H5N6, and H5N8 subtype viruses clustering in this HA group. After careful analysis of all
available H5 sequence data, this group of HA gene segments has been designated as clade
2.3.4.4 and use of this unified classification is recommended. The virology, animal and public
health communities are encouraged to adopt this clade designation for these H5 HAs and
discontinue use of the provisional clade 2.3.4.6 designation, which was assigned tentatively during
the WHO Vaccine Virus Consultation in September 2014 in reviewing and selecting candidate
vaccine viruses of this emerging group of viruses (5).

1. WHO-OIE-FAO, H5 Evolution Working Group. Toward a unified

nomenclature system for highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1). Emerg
Infect Dis 14, e1 (2008).
2. WHO-OIE-FAO, H5 Evolution Working Group. Continuing progress
towards a unified nomenclature for the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza
viruses: divergence of clade 2.2 viruses. Influenza and other respiratory viruses 3,
59-62, doi:10.1111/j.1750-2659.2009.00078.x (2009).
3. WHO-OIE-FAO H5 Evolution Working Group. Continued evolution of
highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1): updated nomenclature. Influenza
Other Respi Viruses 6, 1-5, doi:10.1111/j.1750-2659.2011.00298.x (2012).
4. WHO-OIE-FAO H5 Evolution Working Group. Revised and updated
nomenclature for highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5N1) viruses. Influenza
and other respiratory viruses 8, 384-388, doi:10.1111/irv.12230 (2014).
5. Antigenic and genetic characteristics of zoonotic influenza viruses and
development of candidate vaccine viruses for pandemic preparedness (September
2014,
http://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/201409_zoonotic_vaccinevirusupdate
.pdf)

The WHO/OIE/FAO H5 Evolution Working Group, established in 2007, consists of representatives

from international agencies (World Health Organization, World Organisation for Animal Health,
and Food and Agricultural Organization) and academic institutes. Since its establishment the
committee has provided a framework and regular updates for the H5 nomenclature system.
WHO H5 Reference Laboratories
In 2004, the WHO H5 Reference Laboratory Network was established, as an ad hoc
component of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS), in
response to the public health needs arising from avian influenza A(H5N1) infection in
humans and influenza pandemic preparedness.

https://www.who.int/influenza/gisrs_laboratory/h5_reflabs/torh5reflab2006.pdf?ua=1

WHO criteria for accepting positive PCR test results of H5

infection in humans from national reference laboratories
https://www.who.int/influenza/gisrs_laboratory/h5_reflabs/h5acceptancecriteria.pdf?ua=1

H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza- Timeline of major events Early Events Date 1996 1997 Feb
2003 Subsequent Events Date 25 Nov 2003 12 Dec 2003 Dec 2003 – Jan 2004 Events in Humans 17
March 2014

https://www.who.int/influenza/human_animal_interface/H5N1_avian_influenza_update20140317.pdf?u
a=1

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION CHILDHOOD LEAD POISONING Avian influenza surveillance,

laboratory and virology
https://www.who.int/ceh/publications/leadguidance.pdf

http://www.jabs.org.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=668

It is essential that anyone who was involved in the MMR litigation gives
their attention to this notice

MMR JUDGE FAILED TO DISCLOSE HE WAS BROTHER OF Glaxo SmithKline

DIRECTOR AND LANCET BOSS

Just three days ago I discovered while going over the records for 2004 that the
judge, Mr Justice Davis (aka Sir Nigel Anthony Lamert Davis), who had dismissed
the appeal over the removal of funding of the MMR litigation by the Legal
Services Commission was the brother of Lancet proprietor (CEO Reed Elsevier)
Crispin (Henry Lamert) Davis who at the time had also recently become a non-
executive director of Glaxo SmithKline. Though this has not been reported in the
media the following press announcement was issued by the judiciary yesterday
afternoon:

"In 2003 Mr Justice Davis's brother was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of

Glaxo SmithKline, a company which was formed as a result of a merger with
Smith Kline Beecham. At the date of the hearing before Davis J, the possibility of
any conflict of interest arising from his brother's position did not occur to him.

"If he was wrong, any possible remedy must be sought from the Court of
Appeal."

Former litigants should complain without delay to the Office for Judicial
Complaints, focussing on the GSK conflict. Clearly if the judge had said at the
time that his brother was a director of GSK but he intended to hear the case
anyway his decision would have been regarded with a great deal more
scepticism:

http://www.judicialcomplaints.gov.uk/

They should also write without delay to their MPs, and they should contact
anyone they know who was also party to the litigation, and draw their attention
to this notice. It is very important that as many people do this as soon as
possible.

People may like to note the sequence of events:

1) July 2003 Lancet proprietor Crispin Davis become a non-executive director of

MMR manufacturer Glaxo SmithKline

2) February 20, 2004. The Lancet throws Andrew Wakefield to the wolves for
tenuous reasons. He is dragged through the mud by the BBC and Sunday Times
for four days.

3) February 27, 2004. Mr Justice Davis dismisses the litigants appeal for
restitution of funding.

4) June 2004. Crispin Davis knighted by the Blair government.

John Stone

http://whale.to/vaccine/mmr_judge.html
GMC Challenged On MMR Inquiry Chief's Vaccine Firm Links

London, England & Scotland/29 May 2007/JWock/ The Chairman of the General
Medical Council's inquiry into MMR vaccine doctor Andrew Wakefield, Professor
Dennis McDevitt, is being challenged over undisclosed personal interests. On 11th
July this year an unprecedented 14 week GMC hearing chaired by Professor McDevitt
was due to commence into charges against Dr Andrew Wakefieldof the Royal Free
Hospital relating to the controversial vaccine. However, previously secret
government minutes reveal Professor McDevitt was himself a member of a 1988
government safety panel which approved Pluserix MMR as safe for vaccine
manufacturer Smith Kline & French Laboratories (see first .pdf attached). Pluserix
MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine was introduced in 1988 but the
Government was forced to withdraw it in November 1992 after large numbers
children suffered suspected adverse vaccine reactions.

This development follows the recent discovery that High Court Judge Sir Nigel Davis,
who in a secret hearing rejected the MMR childrens' appeals against withdrawal of
legal (see second .pdf attached), failed to disclose his brother was main board director
of the MMR vaccine manufacturer's parent company GlaxoSmithKline (more
below).

The GMC hearing against Dr Wakefield relates to events in 1998, seven years after
legal investigations into the MMR childrens' ailments first started. Dr Wakefield
angered MMR vaccination proponents and created a furore in 1998, when he
suggested offering single vaccines alongside MMR - albeit that is current official
Conservative party policy.
Nearly 2000 children alleged to be suffering from autism, deafness, bowel disorders
and other serious injuries caused by the vaccine filed legal claims against
manufacturer Smith Kline & French Laboratories Ltd. Investigations into the claims
started in 1991 when applications for legal aid were first being filed. The vaccine was
given to 85% of MMR vaccinated children between 1988 and 1992. Labour MP Jack
Ashley said at the time of the 1992 withdrawal that correspondence with Minister
Virginia Bottomley MP confirmed government knew of the problems in March 1991,
some 18 months earlier.

The GMC's inquiry into Dr Wakefield is said to include conflicts of interest alleged
by the Sunday Times in 2004. Dr Wakefield was retained as an expert witness in the
legal claims. It was alleged Dr Wakefield failed to disclose payments made by
lawyers to the Royal Free when his team published a paper in the Lancet medical
journal concerning medical investigations into the children's illnesses. Final charges
have yet to be published. GMC hearings are often less than a day and usually no
more than two or three days.

Other safety panel members who approved the vaccine included controversial
paediatrician Professor Sir Roy Meadow, Government vaccination supremo Dr David
Salisbury, Dr Elizabeth Miller of the Health Protection Agency, and Joint Committee
on Vaccination and Immunisation member and Chairman Professor Sir David Hull.

Dr Miller is also an expert witness for the Glaxo companies defending the children's
claims. She has stated "there can be no conflict of interest when acting as an expert
for the courts, because the duty to the courts overrides any other obligation, including
to the person from whom the expert receives the instruction or by whom they are
paid ". Dr Miller has also published in The Lancet without disclosing funding from
drug companies and still without complaint from the Editor. Wakefield disclosed his
status as an expert witness funded by legal aid in a letter to the Lancet in 1998 - six
years earlier so this was known to The Lancet.

Barrister Robert Hantusch in a letter to the Times of 24 February 2004 said "The
courts do not consider that the engagement of someone to act as an expert witness in
litigation has the effect that that person is then biased. Indeed, if this were the legal
position, no paid professional could ever at any time give evidence to a court "

A challenge is also being mounted against the withdrawal of the childrens' legal
funding in 2004 concerning High Court Judge Sir Nigel Davis failure to disclose his
brother was main board director of the MMR vaccine manufacturer's parent company
GlaxoSmithKline plc and Chief Executive of the Lancet medical journal. Judge
Davis' brother is Sir Crispin Davis (57).

Furious parents who filed complaints with MPs and the Office for Judicial
Complaints, which investigates the conduct of judges and coroners are told to expect
a response this week..

Judge Davis' spokesman Peter Farr of the Judicial Communications Office said "The
possibility of any conflict of interest arising from his brother's position did not occur
to him. If he was wrong, any possible remedy must be sought from the Court of
Appeal.".

Multinational drugs giant GlaxoSmith Kline appointed Sir Crispin Davis as non
executive director 1 July 2003. Three months later the Legal Services Commission
were due to decide on the MMR childrens' funding and made the contested decision
on 4th October 2003. Five months later Judge Davis rejected appeals against the
LSC's decision. The reasons remain secret. Parent Ann Hewitt claims " We have
been dumped. Legal advice says Thomas has a strong case, but legal aid was
mysteriously taken away." However, parent Marion Wickens, who also claims her
severely injured 13-year-old daughter's legal case was strong, said in a later open
court hearing that a senior LSC official admitted the decision to stop Legal Aid
" came from the government" (see third .pdf attached).

Sir Crispin Davis is unlikely to be a stranger to controversy over the MMR

vaccine. He is Chief Executive of the owners of the "The Lancet" medical journal. In
1998 The Lancet published the now controversial study by Dr Andrew Wakefield's
Royal Free Hospital London research team into links between autism and the MMR
vaccine. Wakefield sparked a furore with the government later to involve Prime
Minister Tony Blair when at a March 1998 press conference he suggested single
measles jabs be made available alongside MMR.

Six years after the publication of the Lancet paper, in February 2004 and only a week
before Judge Nigel Davis's rejection of the childrens' funding appeal, The Lancet
Editor, Richard Horton disclaimed the Royal Free paper, claiming Wakefield had
failed to disclose a conflict of interest over funding by the Legal Services
Commission. Premier Blair was quoted at the time " There's absolutely no evidence
to support this link between MMR and autism". Horton expressed public regret for
publishing the Royal Free paper and Sir Crispin Davis was knighted three months
later.

Parent John Stone comments "A major unexplained mystery is why the issue of what
measles vaccine was given to children should have been so political. There was, after
all, a perfectly acceptable, cheaper and more effective measles vaccine then
available. "

Current Conservative Shadow Health Minister Andrew Murrison says "The last time
we commented on this we said that MMR would be routinely recommended (the CMO
believes it to be safe) but if refused the single jab would be available. We haven't
changed that position. "

Today the issue remains mired in confusion and contradictions. Parent Elaine Butler
demands an inquiry "We believe the evidence shows very clearly that our children
were damaged by this vaccine. If it was so important to the government, then they
should have ensured the case went to trial with full funding so everyone could see the
evidence in open court. The additional amount that would cost compared to all the
money spent by the government and NHS on attacking Wakefield and promoting
MMR is trivial . And the irony is, we now learn that 2007 is the year the chance of
anyone catching measles and dying became vanishingly small. People in the UK are
60 times more likely to be hit by lightning than killed by measles and the official
government figures show that disparity will continue to increase over time ".
INFORMATION FOR EDITORS:

For the curious politics of MMR see - Top doctor wades into MMR debate BBC -
Monday, 23 February 2004

Some of the MPs known contacted by parents include:-

Norman Baker
Stewart Jackson, Peterborough,
Shona Robinson (SNP health minister with autistic daughter)
Sir Robert Smith, Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine
Lynne Featherstone
Alex Salmond
Chris Mullin

For in-depth analysis of the controversy see:-

"MMR - SCIENCE AND FICTION": the Richard Horton story BMJ John
Stone 24 Sep 2004
"MMR - SCIENCE AND FICTION": the Richard Horton story II BMJ
John Stone 26 Sep 2004
"MMR - SCIENCE AND FICTION": the Richard Horton story III BMJ
John Stone 30 Sep 2004
"MMR - SCIENCE AND FICTION": the Richard Horton story IV BMJ
John Stone 1 Oct 2004
"MMR - SCIENCE AND FICTION": the Richard Horton story V BMJ
John Stone 1 Oct 2004
"MMR - SCIENCE AND FICTION": the Richard Horton story VI BMJ
John Stone 3 Oct 2004

========== Contact information

Peter Farr
Judicial Communications Office
Thomas More Bldg 11.07
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London WC2A 2LL

www.judiciary.gov.uk

Payout scandal of children

left disabled by jabs
Mail on Sunday Feb 29, 2004
BITTER: Kay Stait is still fighting for compensation for her son Ben, who
developed epilepsy after a three-in-one jab in 1994 and has fits every day,'
she said. 'He needs 24-hour care and has been in and out of hospital for
years. Yet he was a perfect baby, just beautiful. I feel bitter and terribly
cheated but we won't stop trying.'
Despite changes in the law, only one out of 171 cases succeeded
in 2000 and the following year just two out of 176 were
successful.
Claims jumped to 406 in 2002 but only eight families received
pay­ments, while of the 183 families.
THE Government has been accused of breaking a promise to
compensate hundreds of parents whose children were left brain-
damaged or disabled by routine immunisation jabs.
Figures obtained by The Mail on Sunday reveal there were just
11 settlements over the past four years despite nearly 1,000
claims for damages being made.
Campaigners say they are being cheated out of money
desperately needed to care for their sick chil­dren and have
called for the law to be reformed.
The revelations come as debate rages over the safety of the
contro­versial MMR vaccine and the Gov­ernment's response to
fears of a link to childhood autism.
Ministers won praise in 2000 for updating the 1979 Vaccine
Damage Payment Act. The then Social Secu­rity Secretary,
Alistair Darling, said an extra £60 million had been ear­marked
for families of affected youngsters and it would be easier for
parents to make claims.
But critics believe just a fraction of that amount has actually
been passed on and the number of suc­cessful claims is lower
than ever.
Dr Mahmood Javidi, a retired accident and emergency
consultant from Warrington, Cheshire, has twice been denied
compensation for his son Cyrus, 11, who suffered brain damage
after having a com­bined jab for diphtheria, tetanus and
whopping cough in 1992.
Cyrus is now unable to speak and is forced to communicate by
draw­ing his parents a picture whenever he wants something. Dr
Javidi, 63, who worked in the NHS for 30 years, said: 'My child
was given a vaccine that made him disabled and made our lives
a mis­ery - somebody has to take responsibility. The
Government approach to this is all wrong.'
Ben Stait developed severe epilepsy after a second dose of the
same jab in October 1994, when he was three months old.
Within hours of the vaccination, his mother Kay, 38, from
Wolverhampton, noticed his eyes were rolling and his arms
were splayed and limp. Despite confirmation from experts at
Great Ormond Street Hospital that the vaccine was probably to
blame, Kay and her husband David were turned down for
compensation.
'Ben cannot talk or feed himself who sought help last year, none
was successful.
Olivia Price, of the Vaccine Vic­tims Support Group, said most
par­ents were turned down unless they could provide irrefutable
evidence that vaccines damaged their babies.
'We believe in vaccines but a small number of children are
damaged by them. But these children are just being turned down
flat and the par­ents left devastated. We want the law revamped.
It's not working.'
http://whale.to/a/bitter.html
MMR judge faces probe over brother's link to vaccine firm

The Londoner's Diary, Evening Standard, May 9 2007.

You might have thought that a judge presented with a case regarding MMR
vaccines and the link to autism would declare that his brother was a director
of MMR vaccine manufacturer Glaxo SmithKline Beecham. But you would
be wrong.

Sir Nigel Davis was the judge who, three years ago, rejected an appeal by
MMR vaccine litigants against the decision not to award funding for their
legal campaign. But he failed to mention his interests in the subject.

Now, complaints against him are being filed to the Office for Judicial
Complaints, which investigates allegations of any questionable conduct by
judges, coroners and magistrates.

Davis's brother, Sir Crispin Davis, was appointed a non-executive director of

drugs multinational Glaxo Smith Kline in 2003, a year before the appeal
came to court. Asked why Sir Nigel did not declare this, his spokesman
said: "The possibility of any interest arising from his brother's position did
not occur to him."

But Sir Crispin's potential links with MMR vaccines goes back longer than
that, as since 1999 he had been CEO of Reed Elsevier, the publishing
company which owns The Lancet magazine.

Although The Lancet had originally published research into the links
between autism and MMR by Dr Andrew Wakefield in 1998, by 2004 the
magazine regretted ever having done so. The Lancet had announced its
change of heart only the week before Sir Nigel was due to make his decision
on the MMR litigants' appeal, sparking a sudden backlash against the theory
in the media, and prompting the Prime Minister to say "There is absolutely
no evidence to support this link between MMRand autism".

The quashing of the MMR litigants case would have a huge relief to the
government, who could have faced massive pay outs had they successfully
sued the drugs companies over the effects of MMR.

Sir Crispin Davis was knighted by Blair's government in June 2004, only
four after the Lancet article was published (sic).

Coroner’s alert on Zyban

New fear as father-of-four dies within two days of taking anti-smoking drug

By Mark Blacklock (Express Feb 10, 2001

A CORONER has raised fresh concerns over the safety of anti-smoking drug Zyban after a man died
within days of taking it.

The case of Alan Ridley, 46. is to be reported to the Medicines Control Agency following an inquest
which recorded an open verdict.

The father-of-four had been a 40-a-day smoker for many years and began a course of prescribed
treatment after consulting his GP in August.

Zyban was introduced to Britain last year from the United States where it was taken by 15 million
smokers, a third of whom are estimated to have remained "clean" at least a year after treatment. In the
UK 150,000 patients have tried it since last June and 3,000 people have reported adverse affects.

It was stressed at Mr Ridley’s inquest that there was no firm evidence to show the drug played any role
in his death, but Martin Shaw, coroner for Sunderland, said he would still be contacting the MCA
directly.

He added: "It could have played no part at all, or there is the possibility that it may have contributed."

The hearing was told Mr Ridley, a widower, failed to tell his doctor of a family history of blackouts
and fits, and this could have affected the deciscion to prescribe Zyban.

The former bus company owner was found dead at his home in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, by
firefighters who broke in. He had collapsed and died cooking a meal which started a blaze. Pathologist
Debra Milne told the inquest that the cause of death could not be established, although there was no
evidence of heart attack, blood clot or stroke.

Mr Ridley’s daughter Michelle Smith, 20, said her father died two days after starting his two-month
course of tablets.

A spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline which produces Zyban, said it should be avoided by patients
with head injuries, heart, liver or kidney conditions or those with brain tumours. She added: "Zyban is
contra-indicated in patients with a prior or current seizure disorder such as epilepsy"

http://whale.to/drugs/zyban.html

RELENZA: Official Asks If One Day Less of Flu Is Worth It
Still on the market, the drug has been linked to 22 deaths so far.

Wednesday, December 20, 2000 | Print this story

By DAVID WILLMAN, Times Staff Writer

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/reports/fda/lat_relenza001220.htm

Glaxo executives were steaming in early 1999 over the work of

biostatistician Michael Elsahoff and other FDA reviewers who had
examined
the company's new flu drug, Relenza.
The reviewers found that Relenza was no more effective than a placebo
in treating common flu symptoms among American patients. The drug
showed
better results in foreign studies. But the reviewers also found that
Relenza, a powdery inhalant, was potentially unsafe for flu patients with
asthma or other respiratory disease.
Relenza is not a vaccine. It is designed to be taken within two days of
the onset of flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat or
headache. Relenza may reduce by about one day a patient's symptoms.
The drug underwhelmed members of the FDA's Antiviral Drugs
Advisory
Committee. It voted, 13 to 4, on Feb. 24, 1999, to reject it.
"There isn't sufficient efficacy to warrant me recommending this drug
for my family or myself," said Dr. John D. Hamilton, a professor of
medicine
at Duke University. Said another committee member, Dr. Sharilyn Stanley
of
the Texas Health Department: "I have significant concerns."
Glaxo reacted quickly.
Dr. James Palmer, the company's director of medical, regulatory and
product strategy, told an FDA administrator in a March 2, 1999, letter that
the staff's position on Relenza "is completely at odds with the will of
Congress that drug development and approval proceed swiftly and surely."
The
letter was addressed to Dr. Heidi M. Jolson, director of the FDA's antiviral
drugs division.
The Glaxo executive accused the reviewers of "blindsiding" the
company.
He said one FDA medical officer "exerted considerable and, we believe,
misguided and inappropriate influence on the review." He decried the "total
silence" at the advisory meeting of another agency physician. He termed
Elashoff's analysis "extreme." He said the "advisory process was distinctly
biased against fair and open consideration of [Relenza]." A copy of the
letter was obtained by The Times.
Elashoff said his superiors told him he would no longer make
presentations to the advisory committee. He said he was asked at least five
times to delete the anti-Relenza recommendation from his review. He
refused.
The FDA declined to comment on these matters.
The agency approved Relenza on July 26, 1999. In a memo dated that
same
day, Jolson provided a mixed assessment.
Relenza, she said, had not been shown effective for patients over 65 or
those "with a variety of respiratory, cardiovascular and other medical
conditions." She said "special precautions are warranted" if Relenza is used
by patients with respiratory disease. These groups would encompass patients
most vulnerable to death from the flu. On the other hand, Jolson said, "the
totality of the data" suggested that some Relenza patients could expect
modest benefit and that their influenza A or B symptoms might improve an
average of one day sooner by taking the drug.
The FDA medical officer first assigned to review Relenza, Dr. Barbara
Styrt, wrote that "a rationale can be constructed either for non-approval or
for approval." She ultimately backed approval, saying that concerns could
be
addressed through "label language" and later studies. Analysts at Merrill
Lynch & Co. predicted the drug would generate sales topping $400 million
within four years.
Glaxo, aiming for customers as widespread as the flu itself, last fall
placed ads for Relenza on network television. The lighthearted spots
featured an actor from the "Seinfeld" sitcom.
Problems emerged quickly.
Following the voluntarily reported deaths of seven Relenza patients,
the FDA issued an unusual "public health advisory" to doctors on Jan. 12,
2000, warning of the limited role of Relenza and another recently approved
flu-symptom drug. Two of the dead had bacterial infections and should have
been treated with antibiotics.
The agency said it had received "several reports of deterioration of
respiratory function following inhalation of Relenza in patients with
underlying asthma" or another breathing problem. Reports filed through
June
show that Relenza was cited as a suspect in 22 deaths.
In July, Glaxo issued a warning letter to health professionals, noting
"reports of serious respiratory adverse events when Relenza was used in
patients with known airways disease." The letter also said that patients
with no history of such disease had suffered "decline in respiratory
function."
The company added: "Some adverse events have required immediate
treatment or hospitalization, and some patients . . . have had fatal
outcomes." The Glaxo letter said it was "difficult to determine" whether
Relenza caused the deaths.
None of which has surprised Elashoff.
"Even if you accept the company line, that it knocks a day off the flu,
a day is not much when you compare it to your life," he said, adding that
the approval "was certainly a top-down decision."
Woodcock said the FDA's actions reflect a balancing of risks and
benefits. She noted that "strengthened" warning language was added to the
product label in April and that a newer study had shown the drug to be
effective and safe for children age 7 and older.
Glaxo spokeswoman Ramona DuBose said Relenza "is an important tool
for
physicians to have to reduce the risk of the disease."
She said the drug can reduce symptoms from both A and B flu strains
"by
at least a day."
The Glaxo executive wrote the letter in March 1999, DuBose said, to
"vehemently protest" the FDA staff's performance at the advisory committee
meeting. "We weren't given the opportunity to fully prepare our responses to
the FDA's questions."
DuBose said Glaxo would not comment on the volume of reported
deaths,
adding: "No causal relationship has ever been established between Relenza
and any death, anywhere in the world."
http://www.kaumudi.com/news/040504/a_ind.stm

Kaumudi Logo Kaumudi Online

Monday, April 05, 2004

Orphans used for HIV trials

 NEW YORK: GlaxoSmithKline embroiled in scandal in which babies
and children were allegedly used as `laboratory animals'

ORPHANS and babies as young as three months old have been used as
guinea pigs in potentially dangerous medical experiments sponsored
by pharmaceutical companies.

British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline is embroiled in the scandal. The

firm sponsored experiments on the children from Incarnation Children's
Centre, a New York care home that specialises in treating HIV sufferers and
is run by Catholic charities.

The children had either been infected with HIV or born to HIV-
positive mothers. Their parents were dead, untraceable or deemed unfit to
look after them.

According to documents, Glaxo has sponsored at least four medical

trials since 1995 using Hispanic and black children at Incarnation.

The documents give details of all clinical trials in the US and reveal
the experiments sponsored by Glaxo were designed to test the `safety
and tolerance' of Aids medications, some of which have potentially
dangerous side effects. Glaxo manufactures a number of drugs designed to
treat HIV, including AZT.

Normally trials on children would require parental consent but, as

the infants are in care, New York's authorities hold that role.

The city health department has launched an investigation into claims

that more than 100 children at Incarnation were used in 36 experiments -
at least four co-sponsored by Glaxo.

Some of these trials were designed to test the `toxicity' of Aids medications.
One involved giving children as young as four a high-dosage cocktail of
seven drugs at one time. Another looked at the reaction in six-month-old
babies to a double dose of measles vaccine.

Most experiments were funded by federal agencies like the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Until now Glaxo's role
had not emerged. In 1997 an experiment co-sponsored by Glaxo used
children fromIncarnation to `obtain tolerance, safety and pharmacokinetic'
data for Herpes drugs. In a more recent experiment, the children were used
to test AZT. A third experiment sponsored by Glaxo and US drug firm
Pfizerinvestigated the `long-term safety' of anti-bacterial drugs on three-
month-old babies.

KERALAINDIA

SmithKline hit by inquiry into bribes

Simon Bowers
Tuesday March 12, 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,665936,00.html
SmithKline Beecham, which merged with Glaxo to become Glaxo SmithKline, has
become embroiled in a criminal investigation into the alleged bribing of more than
1,000 German doctors in order to secure orders for the drugs it manufactured in the
late 1990s.

The company is suspected of having paid bribes of up to DM60,000 (£20,000) to

individual doctors in almost every city across Germany in return for them taking
SmithKline Beecham products.

The public prosecutor's office in Munich has started an investigation following raids
on a string of businesses two years ago, according to reports in the German press.
Yesterday, a spokesman for GSK said they had not known the investigation was
under way until the reports appeared.

Most of the doctors under suspicion are believed to have received between DM1,000
and DM3,000 between 1997 and 1999, but some individuals may have received
DM60,000.

Investigators are thought to have heard varying explanations for the payments from
those interviewed.

Raids on SmithKline Beecham offices in Munich took place in May 2000, months
before the completion of the merger with Glaxo Wellcome. The combined business
today has an annual turnover in Germany of about £500m. Details of the investigation
overshadowed the departure of chairman Sir Richard Sykes, who yesterday
announced his retirement.

During the past seven years, Sir Richard drove through two huge mergers - with
Wellcome in 1995, and SmithKline Beecham in 2000 - transforming the business into
Europe's largest pharmaceuticals firm.

He stepped back from the role of chief executive in 1997 to become non-executive
chairman, but remained the leading figure behind GSK's acquisitive zeal.

But yesterday several City analysts insisted there were no signs that GSK had
overstretched itself under Sir Richard's stewardship.
The GSK chairman, who plans to concentrate on his work as rector of Imperial
College, will retire in May taking with him an annual pension expected to be worth
more than the £657,000, secured two years ago. The exact figure will be released in
the company's annual report, published next month.

Sir Richard said: "Having overseen the successful merger of GSK and as I approach
my 60th birthday in August, I feel now is the right time to depart."

His successor is to be Sir Christopher Hogg, who is already a non-executive director

at GSK, and holds a similar post at Reuters.

I was used as a guinea pig in child

vaccine scandal'
By Patricia McDonagh
Friday, 20 August 2010

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/i-was-used-as-a-guinea-pig-
in-child-vaccine-scandal-14918543.html

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.

She was given up for adoption to a couple in the US shortly afterwards and is now preparing a class
action in the US courts against the multinational drugs giant responsible for the medical tests, an Irish
Independent investigation reveals.

Ms Steed and three others who were also subjected to the trials are looking to separately sue the
Catholic religious order that they claim facilitated the experiments in the early 1960s.

She was administered the vaccine on at least four occasions at the Sacred Heart Convent, Bessborough,
in Cork, also known as the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home.

Ms Steed became aware she had been subjected to the vaccine trials after she retrieved her medical
documents while trying to track down her mother, Josephine, in the late 1990s.

Josephine, who is now in a nursing home in the UK, last night said the tests were carried out on her
baby daughter without her consent or knowledge of her medical history.

"They didn't ask me for my permission to give her that shot," she said.

Ms Steed, who now lives in Philadelphia, and a number of other victims in the US are taking the
landmark case because repeated attempts to seek justice in the Republic of Ireland have failed.

She and the three others are planning to file a class action against the GlaxoSmithKline drug company
in the US courts. GlaxoSmithKline was called 'The Wellcome Foundation' when the trials were
conducted.
They are also hoping to separately take a case against the Sacred Heart Order -- either individually or
as a group -- in the Irish courts.

Victims have queried if the religious order received any financial payment in return for the children
being used in the trials. However, it has never been established if any payment was received.

"The trials involved incredibly poor judgment on the part of all involved. We were basically used as
human guinea pigs," Ms Steed told the Irish Independent.

"There are at least four of us who are aware we were part of the trials, but there are probably more out
there who don't know what happened to them."

At least 211 children were given the test vaccines during three separate drug trials, says a report
commissioned by then-Health Minister Brian Cowen and drawn up by the Republic's Department of
Health in 2000.

Ms Steed was involved in the first trial, which took place between December 1960 and November 1961
on 58 children in five children's homes. These included St Patrick's Mother and Baby Home, Dublin;
the Bessborough Mother and Baby home in Cork; and St Peter's Mother and Baby Home,
Castlepollard, Co Westmeath. Children from St Clare's Baby Home in Stamullen, Co Meath, and the
Good Shepherd Mother and Baby Home in Dunboyne, Co Meath, also participated.

The trial examined what would happen if four vaccines for diphtheria (a life-threatening disorder
caused by a highly contagious bacterial infection), pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus and polio were
combined in one overall jab, known as the four-in-one shot.

However, the four-in-one jab never went into production after it failed to improve the previous
standard vaccine.

Ms Steed's mother, Josephine, who was forced to give her daughter up for adoption to a US couple just
months after the trials took place, insisted she never gave her consent for Mari to be used in the trial.

She added: "What happened to mothers, like myself, and the babies at that home was cruel. I am still
angry and would like an apology for what happened."

However, the report concluded that it had not been possible to find documentation to confirm whether
or not trials were licensed or received consent.

After its publication, the report was referred to the investigation of the Commission to Inquire into
Child Abuse, then known as the Laffoy Commission. But court challenges from doctors involved in the
trials prompted Health Minister Mary Harney to shut down the module without conclusion.

Ms Steed and other victims called on Ms Harney to publicly apologise on behalf of the State for what
happened.

However, Ms Harney last night insisted there would be no further inquiries into the allegations already
made. The minister also declined to say if she would apologise to the victims, or if the Government
would provide life-screening or counselling.

Susan Lohan of the Adoption Rights Alliance said Ms Steed and other victims had been treated like
"second-class" citizens.

A spokesman for the Sacred Heart Order said they would not make any comment until the case was
taken. He said he was not aware of any other live actions against the order and insisted the issue
surrounding the trials had been dealt with. A GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman also refused to comment.
1950s and 1960s] Willowbrook State School-Dr. Saul Krugman of New
York University
[back] Human Experiments

Willowbrook State School-Dr. Saul Krugman of New York University conducted studies of hepatitis
during the 1950s and 1960s on the severely mentally retarded. He systematically infected newly
arrived children between the ages of three and eleven with strains of the virus obtained from the feces
of Willowbrook hepatitis patients. This was done to study the natural history, effects, and progression
of the disease. Franz Inglefinger, who later became the editor of the New England Journal of
Medicine said, "By being allowed to participate in a carefully supervised study and by receiving the
most expert attention available for a disease of basically unknown nature, the patients themselves
benefited . . . How much better to have a patient with hepatitis accidentally or deliberately acquired
under the guidance of a Krugman, than under the care of a rights-minded zealot."

2003] Carol Rutz's Lecture at Indiana University

Babies died in vaccine tests(The

Sunday Post May 28, 2000)
Parents were never told of experiments 50 years ago
THE Government moved to reassure parents last night after it
was revealed more than 20 babies died or were brain damaged
in secret whooping cough vaccine tests.
Thousands of babies were used in the NHS experiments in the
late 40s and early 50s without their parents’ consent.
Over 1000 came from Tyneside alone.
The vaccine had not been tested before and health chiefs have
only now admitted the trials took place, between 1948 and 1956.
The discovery was made after the Vaccine Victims Support
Group called for a Government inquiry into damage caused by
vaccinations.
An all-party parliamentary group, led by Eccles MP Ian Stewart,
compiled information on all vaccines used in Britain. Reports of
the 1950s trials were among these documents.
Mr Stewart said, "It appears a trial was being conducted without
parents’ consent. Families should have been warned the drug
was in early stages."
Families hope this new evidence will help in their fight for
compensation to help look after loved ones.
Olivia Price, the support group’s North East representative, said,
"Children were used as guinea pigs."
Convulsions
Mary Heads (79), from Gateshead, has spent the last 50 years
caring for her son Michael. Despite being fit and healthy until he
was 20 months old, just hours after being given whooping cough
vaccine he became feverish an started to have convulsions.
Doctors said it was unlikely Michael would survive but after
eight days in a coma he pulled through. He was left paralysed
down his right side, severely brain damaged and with epilepsy.

Mrs Heads said, "I have never been given so much as l0p to help
look after Michael. Now we are told the drug hadn’t been tested
properly and our children were part of an experiment."
But a spokesman for the Department of Health said he did not
think bringing the issue up was "beneficial".

CDC Admits Polio Vaccine Tainted with Cancer Causing Virus

Cancer, Simian Virus 40 (SV40), and Polio Vaccine Fact Sheet
• SV40 is a virus found in some species of monkey.

• SV40 was discovered in 1960. Soon afterward, the virus was found in polio vaccine.

• More than 98 million Americans received one or more doses of polio vaccine from 1955 to
1963 when a proportion of vaccine was contaminated with SV40; it has been estimated
that 10–30 million Americans could have received an SV40 contaminated dose of
vaccine.

• SV40 virus has been found in certain types of cancer in humans, but it has not been
determined that SV40 causes these cancers.

• The majority of scientific evidence suggests that SV40-contaminated vaccine did not
cause cancer; however, some research results are conflicting and more studies are
needed.

• Polio vaccines being used today do not contain SV40. All of the current evidence
indicates that polio vaccines have been free of SV40 since 1963.

Additional Facts

• In the 1950s, rhesus monkey kidney cells, which contain SV40 if the animal is infected,
were used in preparing polio vaccines. Because SV40 was not discovered until 1960, no
one was aware in the 1950s that polio vaccine could be contaminated.

• SV40 was found in the injected form of the polio vaccine (IPV), not the kind given by
mouth (OPV).

• Not all doses of IPV were contaminated. It has been estimated that 10–30 million people
actually received a vaccine that contained SV40.

• Some evidence suggests that receipt of SV40-contaminated polio vaccine may increase
risk of cancer. However, the majority of studies done in the U.S. and Europe which
compare persons who received SV40-contaminated polio vaccine with those who did not
have shown no causal relationship between receipt of SV40-contaminated polio vaccine
and cancer.
More Information

• For in-depth information about SV40, polio vaccine, and cancer, see our frequently asked
questions.
• National Immunization Hotline:
English 1 (800) 232-2522
Spanish 1 (800) 232-0233

Page last modified: October 22, 2007

Content source: Immunization Safety Office

Hand over vaccine files, State and drug firms told

By Patricia McDonagh
Tuesday September 14 2010
A Dail committee has formally asked the Department of Health and all multinational drugs
companies to hand over files relating to controversial vaccine trials carried out on children in
state care.

The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children has written to the department and
firms such as GlaxoSmith-Kline to extract information “as a matter of urgency”.

The move follows revelations in a recent Irish Independent investigation into vaccine trials
carried out on vulnerable children in the 1960s and 1970s.

The decision to officially search for information about the controversial trials was decided
during a brief private meeting last week.

Committee chairman, Fianna Fail TD Sean O Fearghail, said members may call for a formal
investigation after a detailed examination of the files.

The move was broadly welcomed by victims and opposition politicians last night.

However, they criticised the Department of Health for failing to launch its own investigation
into the trials — and for its refusal to apologise to survivors.

More than 211 vulnerable infants and babies — 123 of whom were in the care of the State —
took part in three confirmed trials to test new vaccines between 1960 and 1973.

The trials were carried out by the Wellcome Foundation, a company that later merged with
other firms to create GlaxoSmithKline.

However, it remains unclear whether the parents or guardians of the children had consented
to the trials, or if the company had complied with Irish licensing legislation.
As well as these tests, details of further, previously unknown, trials were also handed over to
the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse by GlaxoSmithKline.

A brief — and unreported — paragraph in the commission’s Third Interim Report, published
in January 2004, confirmed the receipt of relevant documents.

It is, so far, not known how many people were involved, whether children in state care were
used for the trials or what medicines were tested.

And — as revealed by the Irish Independent — despite the publication of this report six years
ago, the Government has refused to investigate this new evidence.

Mr O Fearghail said the committee was anxious to obtain as much information about the
issue as possible.

“We want to fully brief ourselves on the issue. We are looking for that information as a
matter of urgency and will decide what course of action to take when we examine the
information,” he added. “One of the options would be to launch an inquiry.”

The committee received a formal request to probe the issue from Fine Gael health
spokesman Dr James Reilly three weeks ago.

Welcoming the latest development, Dr Reilly said he was “delighted” the committee was
looking into the matter.

Fianna Fail TD Charlie O’Connor, who is also on the committee, called on officials to ensure
all information was disclosed.

Truth
“The Department of Health should cooperate with the committee,” he said

However, Adoption Rights Alliance spokeswoman Susan Lohan insisted the move by the
committee should just be the start of uncovering the truth.

“It is astonishing that it has taken the initiative from an Oireachtas committee to drive this
investigation forward,” she said. “The move is a welcome one, but even if a formal
investigation is launched by the committee, this should be followed by an independent
inquiry.”

Author and campaigner Paddy Doyle added: “An investigation into vaccine trials on children
in the care of religious orders and the State must happen, and urgently.”
“The matter is too serious to be kept away from the many people who are worried that they
may have been used as guinea pigs.”

The Department of Health last night again insisted that Health Minister Mary Harney would
not open an inquiry into the trials.

The department said it was unable to confirm if it was aware of further vaccine trials
conducted by other drug companies.

– Patricia McDonagh

Irish Independent

Retired teacher Leo Hickey

(77) convicted of sexual
assault
Abuse survivor from Cork boys school tells court of
‘quarter of a century blocking it out’
Fri, Feb 24, 2017,
Barry Roche in Cork

Leo Hickey: “I have no recollection of him.” File photograph: Provision

A retired school teacher (77) has been found guilty of
sexually assaulting a young boy while teaching in a school
in Co Cork in the 1990s.
Leo Hickey from Realt na Mara, Skevanish, Innishannon,
Co Cork, has been remanded in custody for sentence.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/circuit-court/retired-
teacher-leo-hickey-77-convicted-of-sexual-assault-1.2988348?mode=sample&auth-
failed=1&pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-
law%2Fcourts%2Fcircuit-court%2Fretired-teacher-leo-hickey-77-convicted-of-
sexual-assault-1.2988348

Landmark European judgement finds Irish State liable for sexual

abuse
Jan 23rd 2014

Structure EuropeanCourt of Human Rights

to rule on Irish child sex abuse case
Can the Irish State be held responsible for the abuse suffered by children at the
hands of former National School principal Leo Hickey?

of primary education in Ireland in the 1970s failed to protect a

schoolgirl from sexual abuse by her teacher
In today’s Grand Chamber judgment in the case of O’Keeffe v. Ireland (application no.
35810/09), which is final1, the European Court of Human Rights held:

http://cdn.thejournal.ie/media/2014/01/okeeffe-judgement.pdf

New evidence that Irish children were murdered

August 15, 2009 by theraggedwagon

Although the matter remains practically taboo there are questionable deaths in industrial

and reform schools, Magdalen laundries and mother and baby homes. “I remember lots of
children dying,” said ‘Marion’. She told it to “Suffer the Little Children,” the book by Mary

Raftery and Eoin O’Sullivan published in 1999.

Marion was placed in St. Joseph’s industrial school, Summerhill outside Athlone, County

Westmeath in 1937. She was only a baby. She recalls “a girl who had her appendix out.”

The nuns made the girl get up to work, despite the fact that when she came back from

hospital she was ordered to rest. “A few days after they forced her to get up, she died.

She was a lovely girl and she was only 15 years old.” There are similar reports from most

of the industrial schools.

In a Dáil debate on the Ryan Report on June 12, Martin Mansergh of Fianna Fáil said:

“There are a number of unexplained deaths in the Irish situation.” He was, perhaps

unknown to himself, talking about something much more shocking than the dreadful

physical violence or even sexual abuse. He was discussing dying as a child.

Mansergh was presumably referring to industrial and reform school deaths dealt with

exclusively in the Ryan Report. In the early 1930s, two Christian Brothers were hanged in

Canada for child-death so his thoughts were prescient. Mansergh was referring to deaths

such as those of Bernard Kerrigan, Michael McQualter, Marian Howe, Patsy Flanagan,

Bernard Young and others, who are known to have died contentiously.

However, in writing the life story of the only psychologist to have been to Letterfrack

industrial school, something graver has arisen.

He was born in St. Peter’s, Castlepollard, County Westmeath, run by the Sisters of the

Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; transferred, aged four, to Tullamore county home,

County Offaly; brought to Letterfrack, County Galway at age seven and transferred, at 10,

to Salthill industrial school, County Galway. He was there until he was 16.

Naturally, he is quite sketchy on remembering Castlepollard. After all, he was only four

when plucked from there. In order to see for ourselves and get the book underway, we

called there in June 2007. The former mother and baby home is now a residential center

for intellectually disabled adults and adolescents of both sexes. Run by the Midland Region

of the Health Service Executive (HSE), it caters for people with moderate, severe and

profound handicaps.

What we found was disturbing and repeated in other mother and baby homes run by the

Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. They ran these others in Bessborough in

Cork city and Sean [pronounced shan, the Irish word for ‘old’] Ross Abbey, Roscrea,

County Tipperary. Bessborough opened in 1922; Sean Ross Abbey in 1930 and St. Peter’s,
Castlepollard in 1935. It struck us that the number of dead infants or mothers – at least

for the casual observer – was impossible to measure.

The cemeteries have been renovated, mostly as ultra-twee “memorial gardens”. Angels

and cartoon dogs, bears and cuddly toys now adorn them. There are however, very few

names of the children or mothers who died in these places. Nuns however (or ‘sisters’,

given that in correct usage, ‘nun’ refers to a female religious, who leads a contemplative

life) are all given their own plots with their names inscribed. They, at least, have a proper

Christian burial.

History

History professor at Warwick University, Maria Luddy, said that 60 out of 120 babies died

in Sean Ross Abbey in its opening year. Had that rate been maintained – and, in fact, the

unit expanded – it would have meant 2,400 deaths until 1970 when the mother and baby

unit closed.

Considering that 60 babies died in the opening single year of Sean Ross Abbey, it is safe to

assume that deaths, at least in their hundreds (being utterly conservative) if not greater,

occurred. Remember, Sean Ross Abbey was just one of three mother and baby homes

operated by the order in the state. The sisters sold babies and infants to the few wealthy

in Irish society and American people.

Between the end of World War II and 1965, more than 2,200 Irish infants were adopted

out of the country. It was mostly by parents in the United States. That’s 110 on average,

every year, or more than two a week. Meanwhile, their birth-mothers had to work without

wages – unless they could afford to pay – for two or three years. They wore uniforms, had

their names changed and their letters were vigorously censored.

Writing of her nine months in Bessborough during 1951 and 52, June Goulding has said in

her 1998 book “The Light in the Window” that women tarred roads: “. . . about eight to

ten girls, all in varying degrees of pregnancy . . . and a roller that took three pregnant girls

to pull”. They also plucked lawns – by hand – and polished, polished, polished.

They were routinely worked until well into labour; got no painkillers (even over-the-

counter brands, such as Aspro and Anadin). They weren’t given sutures (stitching) or

antibiotics (after 1928 when they were invented). She recounts they had to give birth in

chromium commodes, in order not to ‘soil’ their beds. (Fundamentalist Catholics

sometimes referred to such babies as “the spawn of Satan”, a designation that encouraged

the more rabid literally “to beat the devil out of them”.)
They were routinely given babies other than their own to breastfeed and had the joy of

‘Sister’ whispering to the women – especially those in labour: “was the five minutes

pleasure worth all this?” Goulding also describes the “cruel custom” of compelling mothers

surrendering their babies to carry them along a corridor before handing them over. “I had

witnessed the horrific ritual that would be repeated for each and every mother and baby in

this hell-hole.”

In 1928, for instance, ‘illegitimate babies’ (henceforth people born ‘outside marriage’

because of the pejorative phrase) suffered ‘infant mortality rates’ five times higher than

children born within marriage. In other words, 10 out of 33 babies born ‘outside marriage’

died before their first birthday. That’s greater than 30 per cent. The equivalent for those

born within marriage was two out of 33.

In the 1930s, it was more than four times as high. The rate of infant mortality for children

born within marriage was, at the time, between five and six per cent. So, roughly a

quarter of all babies born outside marriage died before the age of one. These were death

rates for childbirth in the 17th century.

In 1948, the rate of mortality among babies born inside marriage was 47 per 1,000 live

births. The rate for babies born outside marriage was 149 per 1,000 births. These figures

were quoted by John Cunningham the former Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at

University College Dublin. He said at UCD in March, 1951 that “this area does not

necessitate state intervention”. Still, it’s more than three times as high.

There was infanticide, of course. Mothers or other relatives ‘distraught’ by the birth outside

marriage – sometimes birth-fathers and fathers of mothers grieving lost ‘respectability’ –

undoubtedly killed babies and infants. Such people valued a rule, encouraged by the

Catholic Church to relegate the Fifth Commandment – ‘Thou shalt not kill’ – in favour of

Church hatred of babies born outside marriage.

It’s clear that the reason the Church was so totally against babies born outside marriage

was it meant a loss of control. Between 1870 and 1970, the average Irish rate for birth

outside marriage was less than three per cent. Today, 32 per cent of Irish and 44 per cent

of British people are born outside marriage. Demonising those born outside marriage was

the most effective means to ensure the vast majority of marriageable people had a Church

wedding.

Hidden graves
The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge owned the High Park Convent in Dublin’s

Drumcondra. There they ran the largest Magdalen laundry in Ireland. In 1993, the nuns

were forced because of losses from an aerospace company, Guinness Peat Aviation, to sell

a portion of convent land to the State.

It emerged that 133 graves – a further 22 were later discovered – existed on this land.

The graves held the remains of women interred anonymously between 1866 and 1984.

These graves were for Magdalen women and girls who had worked in the convent laundry

and as maids: cooking, cleaning and caring for nuns, many of whom were elderly. In 1997,

the unmarked graves of 27 women were discovered on the grounds of a former Good

Shepherd convent in Cork. Indeed, unmarked graves exist in almost all former Magdalen

laundry sites.

It appears the nuns did likewise in mother and baby homes. There is, in Castlepollard

graveyard, only five headstones. Two are for deceased nuns: Sr. Alphonsus Ryan, who

died in October 1957 and Sr. Brigid O’Keeffe, who died in November 1964; one for a lay

person, Margaret McGrath (a benefactor?); one five feet tall marble structure requests

people to pray for the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

The fifth headstone is more recent. Most of the graveyards received an updating in the

1990s. It is just 18 inches tall, about three feet wide and made of limestone. “In Memory

of God’s Special Angels Interred in this Cemetary” (sic) it says. There are no names of

children buried there nor is there any indication of their number. I had the eerie feeling I

was standing and walking on a mass grave of babies and infants.

It’s the same in Sean Ross Abbey and Bessborough. Unlike St. Peter’s, which has only the

graves of two nuns, the nuns’ cemetery at Sean Ross Abbey has 24 small headstones.

These mark deaths from 1942 to 2004. All the graves are on one side of the small

graveyard, which is scarcely wider and considerably shorter than the one in St. Peter’s. It

does however have a five feet tall marble cross, identical to the one in Castlepollard.

The children’s cemetery is about one hundred metres away from that of the nuns. Tall,

dense trees surround it. It measures about half an acre. Carved on an obviously recent but

undated headstone is the following: “The Memorial Garden is dedicated to the Babies and

Infants who died in Sean Ross Abbey and are buried here.” At the edges of the cemetery,

there are reminders of four children and one adult buried there.

In the middle of this half acre of sorrow, there is a nameless, faceless and weathered

cross. It was to do for all those buried anonymously in the children’s graveyard before the
sanitising of the place as a ‘Memorial Garden’. Walking on the grass in the cemetery gave

me the same, eerie feeling I had experienced in Castlepollard. How many tiny bodies were

buried there? Dozens, scores, hundreds – perhaps even greater?

Bessborough House was sold with its 210 acres, in 1921, to the Sisters of the Sacred

Hearts of Jesus and Mary. There’s a Lourdes-like grotto and acres of bluebells, some white.

There are 25 nuns buried in the little cemetery. Babies Ellen, William, Patricia, Maura,

Patrick, Mary, Teresa, Geraldine, Richard, Anne, Cathleen and Nellie died here – among

many others – in 1931. Their Christian or first names are written in biro on plasticized

paper plates pinned to the wall of a keep (built as a folly) on the grounds.

There is a sign in front of the keep: “In remembrance of all babies who died before or

shortly after birth.” Behind the keep on which babies’ names are pinned, there’s a circle of

roughly twenty metres. This circle, with grass at it centre, has rocks, lilies, trees, reeds

and white bluebells around its perimeter. It also has an extraordinarily cheap-looking

wooden cross – it looks like tea-chest wood and is uneven.

Penance

Until the Catholic Church makes records available, there has got to be suspicion. One

inmate of Castlepollard told us she was reminded she “was there to do penance”. Yet

doing ‘penance’ is one thing; withholding painkillers, stitching and antibiotics from

expectant mothers is another. A number of them will die.

Fundamentalist Catholics might be against the giving of painkillers, stitching and

antibiotics. The women must be reminded they are there to do ‘penance’. The best analogy

is of a Jehovah’s Witness or a Christian Scientist refusing a blood transfusion to save their

child. Despite their religious convictions, courts regularly override them and insist on the

blood transfusion.

Irish courts conspired however with the religious. The State is as guilty as the Church on

the matter. It’s not only the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. There are a

number of other orders which ran industrial and reform schools, Magdalen laundries and

mother and baby homes. They require investigation.

If High Park is repeated around the country – and it appears that it is – who knows the

number of children buried in what seem like mass graves? Certainly there are hundreds,

possibly many more. After the Ryan Report the matter has lost some of its taboo. “I

remember lots of children dying,” said ‘Marion’.

Where are they? Are they to be lost forever, without even a name (a Christian or first

name to save detection of those with unusual surnames)? Bereft in life, they were treated

similarly in death. Meanwhile nuns lavish money on maintaining and improving their own

graves. If even one killing of a baby or a mother is suspected, the Guards should cordon

off the place and investigate it.

That, at least, is what the State should do. It has spectacularly failed these children in life.

It’s about to compound it by failing them in death. Between them, State and Church

hastened death. For instance, 58 ex-industrial school pupils and former Magdalen women

committed suicide between 2000 and 2005.

That’s way in excess of what you might expect from a relatively small population of

130,000 or so. It seems like there’s 10 times as many suicides among those whose fate

was to attend Catholic Church-run industrial and reform schools and Magdalen laundries.

Society demanded it though. It was Holy Ireland against Pagan England as the Church of

England waned, certainly after World War II. I can remember my own mother talking

about “pagan England . . . heathen England . . . godless England”. Morality was the only

way then that Irish people could feel superior to English people. The English, for their part,

felt commercially, militarily, financially superior to the Irish. They had reason to.

It’s difficult to believe but these people have individually raped or gang-raped an unwilling

child-victim. People who do that will do anything. As to the Church and State: let them

hang their heads in shame. There are some excellent people among the religious and

clergy. It really should be in their interests to weed out rapists, liars and people who take

a perverse pleasure inflicting pain and, at least, hastening death on children.

Instead, they moved them from parish to parish to protect the Roman Catholic Church.

https://theraggedwagon.word
press.com/2009/08/15/new-
evidence-that-irish-children-
were-murdered/
If the State had done the right
thing, Louise O'Keeffe would
never have been abused
In a landmark ruling today, the European Court of Human Rights said
the Irish State is liable for the sexual abuse of children in schools where
it had failed to put effective child protection measures in place.
Jan 28th 2014,

Dr Conor O'Mahony
TODAY’S RULING BY the European Court of Human Rights
that the Irish State is liable for its failure to take steps to
prevent sexual abuse of children in primary schools
represents long-overdue vindication for Louise O’Keeffe.
For 20 years, she has sought to establish that the blame for
her ordeal did not lie exclusively at the hands of her abuser.
Had the State done what it ought to have done, and put in
place effective child protection measures, she would never
have been abused in the first place. The decision is a tribute
to her courage and tenacity, and a damning indictment of
the State’s abdication of responsibility towards children over
many decades.
Louise O’Keeffe was the victim of a series of sexual assaults
in 1973 by the school principal at Dunderrow National
School, Leo Hickey. Complaints had been made against
Hickey but, in line with Department of Education policy,
they were directed to the local priest. The Department never
became aware of them, and Hickey continued to teach at the
school, committing over 400 counts of abuse on over 20
victims. After further allegations, he resigned his post and
moved to another school, where he taught for another 22
years until retiring in 1995.
In 1996, complaints were made to the Gardaí regarding
abuse at Dunderrow. Hickey pleaded guilty in 1998 to 21
sample charges relating to sexual abuse of girls under his
care at Dunderrow, and was sentenced to three years in
prison. Louise O’Keeffe was awarded IR£53,000 by the
Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal. She later
instituted civil assault proceedings against Leo Hickey in
1998, and was awarded in excess of €305,000 in
compensation.
Highlighting the State’s role in allowing
this abuse to continue
However, determined to highlight the State’s role in
allowing this abuse to continue for so long, Louise O’Keeffe
sued the State for vicarious liability for Hickey’s actions. In
2009, the Irish Supreme Court ruled against her on the basis
that Hickey, although paid by the State, was employed by
the school board of management. Therefore, the State bore
no responsibility for the abuse.
In her application to the European Court of Human Rights,
she argued that rather than being vicariously liable for
Hickey’s actions, the State was directly liable for its own
inaction. No measures were in place that would effectively
detect and prevent child abuse in primary schools. Had such
measures been in place, Hickey would have been removed
from his position far earlier and his litany of abuse would
never have been allowed to go as far as it did.
The Court’s judgment today accepted this argument. It
found that under Article 3 of the ECHR (freedom from
inhuman and degrading treatment), it was an
“inherent…obligation of government in the 1970s to protect
children from ill-treatment”, and that this obligation was “of
acute importance in a primary education context”. It
rejected the State’s argument that it was not aware of the
risk of abuse in Irish primary schools, since such crimes
were being prosecuted “at a significant rate” at the time.

The State failed to fulfil its obligation when it entrusted the

management of the primary education of the vast majority
of young Irish children to denominational schools, without
putting in place any mechanism of effective State control
against the risks of abuse occurring. Complaints were
directed away from State authorities towards the school
managers (usually parish priests), and school inspectors had
no obligation to inquire into or monitor teachers’ treatment
of children.
Ultimately, the case came down to a statement of the
obvious by the Court: in a case where a single teacher
committed over 400 counts of sexual abuse on over 20
victims without being detected by the State, the child
protection system simply had to be considered ineffective.
Irish law did not offer her an avenue
In addition to the violation of the right to freedom from
inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3, the Court
also found that there was a violation of the right to an
effective remedy under Article 13. Louise O’Keeffe had been
able to establish Leo Hickey’s culpability for her abuse
before the courts, but the State was also culpable, and Irish
law did not offer her an avenue to establish this culpability
and to access an effective remedy for it.
After over 15 years of legal battles, Louise O’Keeffe has
finally had her personal position vindicated, but significance
of the case goes further than this. It clearly establishes that
the State cannot wash its hands of responsibility for what
happens in denominational schools. It is not enough to write
a cheque and then turn your back: a proactive role must be
taken to ensure that the rights of children are vindicated in
the school system, regardless of who owns or manages the
school.
In the context of historical abuse cases, there is now an onus
on the State to accept responsibility for its failure to
implement effective measures to prevent and detect such
abuse, and to provide survivors with a remedy for this
failure. Whether this takes the form of a new cause of action
before the courts or a redress scheme remains to be seen.
For the future, the case will add further impetus to the
development of a more robust child protection framework in
Irish schools. While Louise O’Keeffe won due to the absence
of almost any child protection measures in 1974, a core
message of the judgment is that even more is expected of the
State in this respect today. The Ministers for Education and
Children should outline clearly how they plan to respond to
the judgment at an early opportunity.
Finally, as a judgment of the European Court of Human
Rights, the decision has the same implications in 47
countries across Europe. Thus, after decades of being
ignored by the State, Louise O’Keeffe has made a key
contribution on the international stage in bringing about
State action to prevent child abuse.
Dr Conor O’Mahony (@ConorUCCLaw) lectures in
Constitutional Law and Child Law at University
College Cork. He was one of the UCC Child Law
Clinic (@ChildLawUCC) members who worked
with Louise O’Keeffe’s legal team, Ernest Cantillon
& Co, on the application to the European Court of
Human Rights.
https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/louise-okeeffe-human-rights-ruling-leo-hickey-abuse-irish-
state-1286672-Jan2014/

Survivors of mother and

baby homes employing
top law firm to sue State
for hundreds of millions
Members of the First Mothers group met recently with
Coleman Legal Partners, the Dublin-based firm which was
involved in Army deafness claims
BY
SYLVIA POWNALL
27 JAN 2019

Survivors of mother and baby homes fed up with the

Government’s delaying tactics are set to sue the State and
religious orders for hundreds of millions of euros.
The Irish Sunday Mirror has learned a top law firm has put
together a team of six barristers to begin a series of High
Court battles.

Earlier this week Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone

apologised for the latest delay in the work of a commission
of investigation probing the institutions.
But spokesman for Irish First Mothers Fintan Dunne said
the latest “kick in the teeth” was the last straw and
survivors will now take a legal route.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “It’s a pity the millions
spent on this so far weren’t put towards addressing the
real, immediate needs of those affected.
“It is a mechanism for evading redress. They’ve had two
extensions to the working report which was supposed to
take 18 months and took three years.
“We’ve had four interim reports now and nothing coming
out of it.”
He added the commission’s workload and resources
meant it was unlikely to see a final report before 2021.
The site of a mass grave for children who died in the Tuam
mother and baby home, Galway, as the Irish Government has
bowed to national and international pressure over the
scandal of the death of 4,000 babies who were buried in
unmarked, unconsecrated and mass graves at homes for
unmarried mothers.
Survivors of mother and baby homes fed up with the
Government’s delaying tactics are set to sue the State and
religious orders for hundreds of millions of euros.
The Irish Sunday Mirror has learned a top law firm has put
together a team of six barristers to begin a series of High
Court battles.

Earlier this week Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone

apologised for the latest delay in the work of a commission
of investigation probing the institutions.
But spokesman for Irish First Mothers Fintan Dunne said
the latest “kick in the teeth” was the last straw and
survivors will now take a legal route.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “It’s a pity the millions
spent on this so far weren’t put towards addressing the
real, immediate needs of those affected.
“It is a mechanism for evading redress. They’ve had two
extensions to the working report which was supposed to
take 18 months and took three years.
“We’ve had four interim reports now and nothing coming
out of it.”
He added the commission’s workload and resources
meant it was unlikely to see a final report before 2021.

The site of a mass grave for children who died in the Tuam
mother and baby home, Galway, as the Irish Government has
bowed to national and international pressure over the
scandal of the death of 4,000 babies who were buried in
unmarked, unconsecrated and mass graves at homes for
unmarried mothers.

I wrote to Judge Murphy and asked to go in front of her. I

got a letter back saying there was no need. It’s more of the
same. People are fed up and tired.”
Lawyer Norman Spicer, of Coleman Legal Partners, said:
“We are currently progressing a number of sample claims
in the High Court and proceedings have been issued in
these matters.
“We are also working closely with several groups in the
community and many individuals to try and bring about a
remedy for these people via the judicial process.”
The commission was set up in 2015 at a cost of
€23million after the bodies of 796 babies were found in
septic tanks behind the Tuam home run by nuns.
A final report was due last year but a one-year extension
was sought. Despite a public outcry a second one-year
extension was granted earlier this week.
A report is due in March on burial arrangements at “major
institutions” including Sean Ross Abbey and Bessborough
Mother And Baby Home.
The investigation of illegal adoptions at St Patrick’s Guild
in Dublin has also been referred to the commission which
will open new lines of inquiry.

03/03/2017 Anna Corrigan sister of the Dolan Brothers outside

Government Buildings Dublin, Following a statement issued
by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation
where ‘Significant’ quantities of human remains found at the
former Tuam Mother & Babies home
Sandra Schroeder-Pierce, whose son was given up for adoption when she
was 17 at the Good Shepard home in Meath, said: “First Mothers group are
actively guiding members through the legal
steps to place cases before the court.

“As Ireland’s largest group of women who were in institutions for unwed
mothers, we have lost confidence in Minister Zappone, in Judge Murphy and
in the current justice process.

“The Government has left us with no other option but to pursue justice through
the courts.” Derek Leinster of Bethany Home Survivors group said time is
running out for the Government to do the right thing.

He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “For the Bethany group members, survival is
measured in days not years.

“I know people who can’t afford to keep them for what time they have left.”

Earlier this week Clare Daly TD said it was “jaw-dropping” to have three
reports in the space of four years with “no details and no findings”.

23/05/2018 Clare Daly TD during a cross Party of left-wing

TD's calling for a YES vote in 8th Amendment Referendum at
the gates of the Dail on Kildare Street, Dublin
And Labour’s Brendan Howlin said: “Will the Government agree to provide
redress for those affected, many of whom are elderly and deserve our
compassion and a resolution to ease their pain as far as we can provide for
this?

“If we do not act now, for some it will be too late.

“It is already too late for those survivors who have passed away in the four
years since the inquiry began.”

https://www.irishmirror.ie/
news/irish-news/survivors-
mother-baby-homes-
employing-13912465

Almost 20 child victims of

alleged paedophile ring
identified
Gardaí believe extended family group and others abused
children in Munster area
Alleged members of the paedophile ring are based in locations across
Munster.

Conor Lally
Tue, Mar 6, 2018, 14:36

Gardaí investigating a major paedophile ring uncovered in

Munster believe some of its child victims were groomed
from birth to be abused.
Almost 20 children have been taken into care and away
from the extended family-based setting where years of
abuse is alleged to have taken place.
Gardaí believe some of the children were raped and
otherwise sexually abused not only by relatives but also by
people from outside the family who paid for access to the
children.
Informed sources said the arrest on Monday of 11 people is
“the tip of the iceberg” given the scale of the criminal
inquiry now under way.
It is alleged that several generations of an extended family
network were abusing young members of the family, as
well as facilitating other paedophiles who paid for access
to the children.
To date only a very small number of the children removed
to places of safety by the Garda and health authorities
have been in a position to give statements to the Garda
outlining the abuse they endured.
Notorious
Well-placed sources said even the most seasoned Garda
investigators, some of whom have decades of experience in
criminal investigations, were shocked by the harrowing
extent of the abuse. They believe the case will become one
of the most notorious in the State’s history.
Sources also say the nature and speed of State agency’s
responses to the abuse when it first came to light is set to
come under very close scrutiny.
The Garda inquiry into what is regarded as a family-led
and large scale paedophile ring has been under way since
the start of last year.
While the 11 arrests were made over the last 24 hours, the
near 20 child victims were removed from their abusive
family-based settings long before Monday.
The suspects arrested range in ages from their 20s and 70s
and include six women and five men. It is understood all
of those arrested are part of one extended family.
However, the arrest of abusers alleged to have paid the
family for access to abuse the children is anticipated.
While the Garda’s investigation is headquartered in the
Limerick division, alleged members of the paedophile ring
based in locations across Munster.
More arrests are anticipated and gardaí believe their
inquiries will spread to suspects now living outside the
Munster region.
Contact abuse
At present the focus of the inquiry is on contact abuse -
involving the physical abuse of a victim - rather than
internet-based offending.
Garda Headquarters ast Phoenix Park Dublin, issued a
statement on Monday confirming the arrests had taken
place.
“Gardaí from Newcastle West, Bruff, Henry Street,
Mayorstone Park and Roxboro Road in conjunction with
the Limerick Divisional Protective Services Unit have
arrested eleven adults,” it said.
The statement said the arrests were part of “an
investigation into alleged sexual exploitation of children”
in the Munster area.
The statement added: “All eleven were arrested in
Limerick, Tipperary and Kerry and are detained at various
Garda Stations in Limerick, Cork and Clare under the
provisions of Section 4 Criminal Justice Act 1984.”
The detention of the suspects under those provisions
allows for each arrested person to be questioned for up to
24 hours without charge.
However, that 24-hour period is suspended when suspects
take breaks or sleep through the night. It means all 11
suspects can be held until Wednesday.

REPORT TODAY ON THE SHELVING OF THE INVESTIGATION
INTO COUNTRY’S LARGEST PAEDOPHILE RING IS VERY TAME
This is what I wrote on
February 23rd 2019
INVESTIGATION INTO LARGEST PAEDOPHILE RING IN
HISTORY OF THE STATE HALTED BY KATHERINE ZAPPONE
Has the fact that paedophiles were travelling from afar to have sex
with up to 15 children, some of them infants, have anything to do
with the fact that Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone
announced this week that the investigation she set up last March
into TUSLA and the Gardai’s handling of children at the center of
the country's largest ever paedophile ring will not go ahead? She
and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan initiated the investigation
after the Dáil heard claims a whistleblower in the welfare sector
had voiced concerns over the urgency of the response of State
agencies when the allegations first came to light. At the time
sources behind the scenes familiar with the investigation said it
would be the biggest abuse case in the history of the State, and
explosive for the State agencies. Upwards of 15 children, across
an extended family network, are believed to be the victims of
some of the most horrific paedophilic abuse, neglect and
exploitation in the history of the State that came to light in March
2018 when up to 20 children were taken into care away from the
extended family-based setting where years of abuse is alleged to
have taken place. Gardaí believe some of its child victims were
groomed from birth to be abused.and some of the children were
raped and otherwise sexually abused not only by relatives but
also by people from outside the family who paid for access to the
children.
https://www.limerickpost.ie/…/suspension-of-inquiry-into-c…/
https://m.independent.ie/…/questioning-of-12-as-part-of-pro…
https://www.limerickpost.ie/…/tusla-in-the-dock-over-paedo…/
https://www.irishtimes.com/…/almost-20-child-victims-of-all…
Tusla defends spending
over €100,000 on PR

THESE ARE THE PEOPLE TUSLA PAY TO DEAL WITH THE MEDIA. LAST
YEAR TUSLA DEFENDED PAYING THEM €102,570
Q4 is a PR company made up of Jackie Gallagher a former political advisor
and a former business correspondent with The Irish Times, Angie Kinane a
former Marketing Manager with Esat Telecom, Martin Mackin a former
member of Seanad Eireann and Gerry O Sullivan who spent ten years on the
executive board of Eircom where he was Director of Communications.Last
October TUSLA defended paying Q4 PR a total of €102,570 between
February 2017 and June 2018 despite the fact that they employ two internal
staff communications officers. Labour spokesperson on Justice, Children
and Youth Affairs, Sean Sherlock said the waste of public funds is an “affront
to democracy”.

Chaotic Child and Family Agency Tusla has spent more than €100,000 in
taxpayers’ cash on private spin doctors in the past year.

The blundering State body ran up the bill as it promised to “ensure best
practice in all communications activities”.

It paid public relations company Q4 PR a total of €102,570.

Last night, Labour TD Sean Sherlock said it was an “affront to democracy”.

This fat cheque is on top of the wages paid to two internal staff
communications officers.
The organisation was coughing up for spin doctors at the same time as it was
embroiled in a huge public scandal.

Tusla was last week hammered in the Charleton Report, which probed a
smear campaign against Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe.

Judge Peter Charleton blasted it for its “shocking administrative

incompetence”. He slated the chiefs, saying: “It is clear that management
need to wake up and actually do a day of work.”

Judge Charleton also highlighted inconsistent evidence and systemic failures

about the handling of files, which “at times required belief to be suspended”.
He added a cascade of “error upon error” that left the Tribunal “utterly
dispirited”.

But Tusla claims “there is a consistent approach to internal and external

communications.”

A statement insisted its PR budget is money well spent.

In a statement to Dublin Live, a spokeswoman said: “Tusla has been working

with Q4 Public Relations since February 2017 to supplement the work being
done directly by the communications team. Tusla engaged Q4 PR to provide
support in relation to the wide range of activity the Communications Section
manages.

“Support provided includes strategic communications, issues management,

communications training, public affairs, assistance with strategy development
and support to the existing communications function within the agency.”

Last night, Cork TD Mr Sherlock told the Dublin Live: “I believe it is excessive,
because an in-house communications service should be enough to deal with
day-to-day press queries.

The idea that CEOs of State agencies are prepped by PR firms is

discomforting and it shouldn’t be allowed effectively.”

Fianna Fail’s Lorraine Clifford-Lee, said: “All departments in all state

organisations should be mindful of spending on various aspects of their work,
especially in the area of Tusla where funds are acutely needed in other areas.

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/tusla-defends-spending-over-100000-
15284903?fbclid=IwAR20R1o2GYUXFK4wR-
O8D2WfAIu6lL3GycCRk9tr_Yvx6T9c5FS8E4gHRuA




Worker with child and

family agency Tusla
accidentally put child rape
allegations into file on Sgt
Maurice McCabe
The horrific claims were "copied and pasted" into a file before
being sent to gardai

BY
NIALL MOONAN
CORMAC O'SHEA
10 FEB 2017




Whistlblower Sgt Maurice McCabe
A worker with child and family agency Tusla accidentally
put child rape allegations into a file on Garda
whistleblower Maurice McCabe, it emerged last night.
The counsellor "copied and pasted" the explosive claims -
which were completely untrue - into a dossier which was
then handed to Gardai and widely circulated in 2013.

It is believed this led to the 'smear' campaign against the

officer, who had raised serious issues about
mismanagement within the force.


TUSLA admitted it made a "clerical error" in 2014, but Mr
McCabe only found out about the damaging allegations
last year.
The new development comes following allegations in the
Dail by Labour's Brendan Howlin that Garda
Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan contacted journalists
saying Mr McCabe was facing a sex abuse rap - which
she denies.

Garda Commisioner Noirin O Sullivan during the Bord Bia's

annual Bloom Festival (Image: Gareth Chaney Collins)
RTE's Prime Time last night revealed that the Tusla file
was widely circulated in 2013 although no attempt was
made to bring the allegations to Mr McCabe.
The false allegation stated that the father abused a young
girl, claims which Mr McCabe said had destroyed his
family.
He told today's Irish Examiner: "How can I and my family
be on the system [in Tusla] since 2013 and not be told
about it?
"The first I knew about any of this was when I contacted
about that horrendous allegation last year."
"They have destroyed us. I find it hard to believe that it
was an honest mistake."

Human trafficking
'handled inadequately by
Irish criminal justice
system'

1
More than 300 presumed victims were reported to or detected by
gardai from 2012 to 2016, 94 of them children, a review found
September 20 2017
A European watchdog has warned that Ireland's criminal justice system is
inadequate for dealing with human trafficking.

Between 2012 and 2016 more than 300 presumed victims were reported to or
detected by gardai, a review has found.

More than half were females and 94 were children.

According to the Council of Europe - the 47-nation organisation which

oversees the European Court of Human Rights - Ireland is primarily a
destination country for traffickers but increasingly people are being trafficked
within these shores.

Seventy-three of the presumed victims were Irish and the majority of them
were children who were sexually abused and exploited.

But the watchdog's Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human

Beings (Greta) warned that the Government's efforts to tackle the issue of
trafficking fall short.

"Greta is concerned by the inadequate criminal justice response to human

trafficking in Ireland and notes that failure to convict traffickers and the
absence of effective sentences engenders a feeling of impunity and
undermines efforts to support victims to testify," it said.

The Council of Europe called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to develop

specialism in trafficking issues and for investigating units in the Garda,
immigration offices and the state's employment rights units to be resourced
properly.

It said more should be done to educate and train gardai, prosecutors and
judges about the seriousness of trafficking, the severe impact of exploitation
on the victims and the need to respect their human rights.

The Greta report called for a review of the law to address gaps.

It warned that the number of prosecutions for trafficking offences was low
compared with the number of investigations - 58 from 2012 to 2015.
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"Human trafficking cases require significant investment to ensure that there is
no over-reliance on vulnerable victims and that those benefiting from the
exploitation are identified and sanctioned, including through following the
money flows and online activity and engaging in transnational co-operation,"
the report said.

Victims of trafficking are most likely forced into sex work, the review said.

But it found 82 people were essentially slaves forced into work, another 13
victims were ordered to commit crime and there was one case of forced
begging.

Some 121 people came from Europe and 50 from west Africa.

But the Council of Europe, which focuses on human rights and democracy,
warned that the numbers do not truly reflect the scale of the phenomenon in
Ireland, due to difficulties in identifying victims.

It accepted evidence from the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) that an
increasing demand for foreign workers, a shortage of legal migration and
inconsistencies around the law are creating a large undocumented population
in Ireland.

It is estimated to be up to 26,000 people.

The Greta report raises concerns about pop-up car washes run by organised
crime gangs, particularly from Romania. They recruit vulnerable unemployed
men with the promise of a well-paid job in Ireland.

It also raised concerns about the issue of sham marriages and cannabis grow
houses.

Inspectors from the watchdog also took issue with the state forcing victims of
trafficking to live in Direct Provision centres.

The Council of Europe called for victims to have access to a compensation

scheme and for an independent rapporteur to be appointed to deal with
allegations related to trafficking.

It also said anyone hiring an au pair should be forced to open their doors to
inspectors
https://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/irish-news/human-trafficking-handled-inadequately-by-
irish-criminal-justice-system-36150021.html
SEX TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN IN IRELAND ... According to a senior Garda source,
human trafficking gangs are ... • The Irish Government should acknowledge the
https://www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Factsheet_Ireland.pdf

Crime gangs trafficking

children from Nigeria to
Ireland for sex trade, says
Europol
Nigerian networks allow movement of underage victims to
northern EU states
Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 01:00 Updated: Fri, Oct 19, 2018, 07:01
Conor Gallagher
In Europe children account for over 20 per cent of trafficking victims, with most
of them aged between 15 and 17. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Sophisticated organised crime gangs are trafficking
children from Nigeria to Ireland to work in the sex trade,
Europol has warned.
The agency identified Nigerian organised crime gangs as
one of the main groups involved in the trafficking of
underage victims into the EU by exploiting the migrant
crisis and using established criminal networks to ferry the
children to Ireland and certain other northern European
countries.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/crime-gangs-trafficking-
children-from-nigeria-to-ireland-for-sex-trade-says-europol-
1.3668510?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-
origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fcrime-and-
law%2Fcrime-gangs-trafficking-children-from-nigeria-to-ireland-for-sex-trade-
says-europol-1.3668510