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COUNCILLOR FRANCIS TIMMONS represents the Dublin suburb of Clondalkin as an independent at South Dublin County Council.
He spent the first years of his life at Madonna House, a mother and baby home run by the Sisters of Charity in Blackrock in Dublin.
Timmons has recently learned that, as a toddler in the home, he was an unwitting participant on an infamous vaccine programme, and now has received confirmation that he received two injections as part of a medicines trial in the 1970s.
In a letter seen by TheJournal.ie, GlaxoSmithKline Ireland confirmed to Timmons that he received a diphtheria tetanus pertussis (DTP) vaccine and a “Plain New” vaccine as part of the Trivax study.
The letter states that he was one of 19 individuals to receive the DTP and one of 30 on the Trivax study at Madonna House in 1973.
The vaccines trials came to light when the public was made aware of them in the 1990s.
Designed to test new vaccines for a range of diseases, from diptheria to whooping cough, the ethical and regulatory issues around performing trials on these children led to numerous investigations into the practice, one of which continues to this day.
“I’d had no idea that I could have been given these injections,” he told TheJournal.ie. “I’m a local councillor so people come to me for help on all kinds of things that I have to then do some research on.
I just came across this and decided to look into it further to see if I’d gotten the vaccines too. I’ve only just found out recently. It’s a lot to take in.
Vaccine trials
For over two decades now, questions asked about vaccine trials carried out on children in the 1960s and 70s have not yielded definitive answers, with State investigations still ongoing.
A 2000 HSE report from then-chief medical officer James Kiely provided details of three vaccine trials that occurred during this period by a company called Wellcome (now called GlaxoSmithKline).
The first took place for an 11-month period, beginning on December 1960, at four mother and baby homes at St Patrick’s on the Navan Road in Dublin, Dunboyne, Castlepollard in Westmeath and Bessborough in Cork.
In all 52 children were participants in this trial to test out a four-in-one vaccine for diptheria, whooping cough, tetanus and polio.
Dozens more received a rubella vaccine in 1970 at St Anne’s Industrial School in Booterstown in Dublin and in Kilcullen, Co Westmeath.
Further trials took place at a number of residential institutions in Dublin in 1973, and this included Timmons’ residence of Madonna House.
In 2014, Newstalk Breakfast reported that more than 298 children across 10 mother and baby homes were subject to experimental vaccine trials during the 1960s and 1970s.
Sister Sarto, a retired nun, who was working in Bessborough told Newstalk Breakfast that parental consent was given for these trials.
An article in the British Medical Journal in 1962 on the first trial, however, would suggest that parental consent was not sought for this one, at the very least.
The final paragraph of that article opens: “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.”
Answering questions in the Dáil on the matter when the issues first began to gain political traction, then-Minister for Health Brian Cowen said that the “study was carried out in accordance with the then-prevailing ethical guidelines”.
Inquiries
The 2000 report by Kiely, however, propelled the government to establish a commission to look specifically at these matters in 2001. That commission was tasked with investigating “into the circumstances, legality, conduct, ethical propriety and effects on the subjects” of these trials and potentially others.
That tribunal of inquiry did not get very far however, and was shut down after a successful legal challenge by a retired doctor who had participated in the trials.
As the Irish Times reported at the time, Professor Patrick Meenan appealed to the Supreme Court after the High Court ordered him to give evidence in the trial. Meenan said that he should not have to appear before the commission on grounds of his age and ill-health.
In the following years, there has been little in the way of official action on the matter of vaccines until quite recently, although press coverage has uncovered further details about the programme in recent years.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner last year, one woman detailed how she’d made a freedom of information and data protection requests to GlaxoSmithKline.
Mari Steed said: “The file from GSK was slim but contained what was needed to confirm my participation.” She added that both the HSE and the pharma company were transparent in their dealings with her.
Investigating these matters now falls under the terms of reference for the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation, which uncovered evidence of mass graves at the Tuam mother and baby home earlier this year.
The statutory terms state that the commission is “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”.
“We can’t move on”
For Francis Timmons, learning that he was part of these vaccines trials is just another revelation to add on to his history at Madonna House.
“My memories of Madonna House are of a dark, gloomy place,” he said. “I remember feeling sad and crying a lot. A lot of the staff were aloof and distant. I remember they were very strict.
I remember feelings of hunger and a deep sadness a lot. I still get flashbacks.
He says that the country will never truly move on from the scandals surrounding mother and baby homes until all the most important questions get some answers.
“I just don’t think we can move on properly as a society,” he said. “Not yet. I’ve spoken to 100s of people who were in my position in one of these homes. And what they tell me is always similar to my own experience.”
He is unsure as to whether his mother gave permission for him to be vaccinated on these trials but said that his mother, whom he was lucky enough to connect with years later, had never mentioned it to him.
Timmons feels it is essential that everyone who was vaccinated on these trials becomes aware of it, as it is another detail of their lives that may have been denied to them for decades.
“They should be made write to everybody to let them know,” he said. “When I realised this, it made sense afterwards.
It filled in a lot of blanks of things I’d thought I’d remembered. People don’t know they were part of it. And now we need to get to the bottom of all that.
Timmons received this information based on a data protection request to GlaxoSmithKline, and is urging others who were in mother and baby homes around the time to find out if they received one too.
“I have been on a long journey, and I’m happy and honoured to be where I am now,” he added. “Me, and others like me, deserve the truth on what happened to us in these homes.”
If you were at a mother and baby home and would like to look into the matter of vaccinations further, please contact us here.
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We need them to speak up for us in the upcoming negotiations as all we’ve got is Phil Hogan.
The British want to have their cake & eat it-but first they must buy the cake
I would have thought £10,000,000,000 net contribution, £100,000,000,000 annual trade deficit will buy them some cake. The UK are happy to walk away from all this and that will leave the EU in an awful position, don’t think for a minute the power is not with the UK.
The growth forecast has been upgraded again today for the UK, now why would all that be? What are the current growth rates for the EU?
@Paul Fahey: Hardly, Theresa May has already admitted defeat on the customs union. The BoE can make all the predictions it likes, but the UK economy has been greatly propped up by QE and currency devaluation.
Britain’s trump card is that they contribute 12-13% of the EU budget, that is they’re main source of leverage. Big questions remain about the position of city of London without access to the European market. And then there is the stock market itself, a massive bubble last long overdue and adjustment. If the predicts hold true then I’ll have to eat crow, but if slow stalls the we will get to see the true effect of Brexit. My feeling is that right now they is a massive smokescreen
The Edge – oh really, don’t recall Theresa May admitting defeat, perhaps you could provide the link. The UKs trump card is actually the city of London largely controls and provides finance for the entire EU and any damage to the city will have a massively adverse effect on an already basket case financial system of the EU. The EU have acknowledged the importance of London and the massive risk it places on the EU in an official EU document, but let’s just ignore that shall we.
It is also odd that you out the £10 billion contribution as more important than the £100 billion trade profit the EU makes from Britain, simple maths will tell you which is more important.
Now the citation of where Theresa May has admitted defeat please.
@Revolting Peasant: He do what he is told…
@Paul Fahey:
Correction it was Lord Price during an interview with Die Welt. Quotes below
“Over the past weeks I have met with many of my EU counterparts […] most of them have made it clear to me that there will be no cherry-picking,” Lord Price told the paper. “We have understood the message,” he added. Cited in the Independent
And show me where you cooked up this mythical £100 billion figure. The figures I’ve seen were closer to 60.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2017/02/how-city-london-could-save-uk-painful-brexit
The Edge > The Jack of all trades and a master of none
@Paul Fahey: The Growth is based on higher Consumption, itself based on taking on additional debt. Personal debt levels are past the point they reached in 200& and are yet again, not sustainable in the medium term. As regards the power being with the UK, exports to the EU as a % of its GDP are 4 times higher than the reverse statistic. And as long as the UK is in the customs union it can’t agree bi-lateral trade deals so any dip in exports to the single market ( due to tariffs and/or NTBs) in 2019/20 means it will go into recession. To put the scale of the problem it now has into perspective the UK earns more from exporting to Ireland (5 million) than to China (1.2 billion) and China is more interested in 500 million consumers (EU) than 65 million (UK).
@Paul Fahey: I’m still waiting…
How will they control immigration without a hard border? Their paper clearly states that they will control immigration.
@Colm Ó Liatháin:
Very simple. They intend to effectively take over the territorial soverignty of the ROI.
It’s a shame we have such a pathetic leader at such an important time.
Why a border,
As one MP said people can just fly in as a tourist to a Uk airport and not leave.
@coles Most leaders of this country would fall in to that category. Inclusive of most of the opposition leaders we have had. Grubby greedy selfish, party before people are traits in Irish politics across the board. I think we have had probably 2-3 max who I could say had integrity.
@fred Jensen Ah now Fred that’s jumping the (sub-machine) gun a bit; surely they’ve learned from their attempt to steal our sovereignty? More likely there’ll be UK customs at our airports and ports, just like the yanks do now.
*last attempt
@Fred Jensen: If I had to guess I’d say it’s the opposite. They’ll create the border between the two islands of Ireland and Britain, with free travel between the Republic and NI.
Just like humpty trumptys wall. 40% of Mexicans come to America by Aeroplane. The wall won’t stop Aeroplanes.
Easy – we do a reverse Denmark/Greenland arrangement by allowing NI to remain in the EU and making the Irish Sea the new border. Land borders are stupidly kmpossible to enforce – partly why Clan Sturgeon’s proposals to put one across thr Scottish border attracted much-deserved ridicule. The DUP meanwhile can suck on all the sour lemons they want.
Honesty, have we ever had a good leader?
Yes, the problem is too many fecking begrudges in this country.
Could not have put it any better, Coles.
@Harry Whitehead: one look at those faces would assure you that the DUP have an infinite capacity to suck sour lemons
Ah the new ff spokesman on brexit can have a field day now . Stephen Donnelly . Meanwhile his ex social democrats partners and other members of the technical group probably now have no speaking rights in the dail. Since they are down to 5 …
The British want us to be “intertwined” with their fate because they intend to use us as a bargaining chip in the negotiations. They will throw us under the bus at the first opportunity to give themselves a better deal. If they don’t get a good deal from the EU, they’ll tell Ireland to veto the deal or else the CTA is scrapped. The British are lining up a list of potential threats to use against Ireland and the EU.
We need to tell them to get stuffed. We are team EU and will not accept any British infringement into Irish sovereignty just to maintain an open border. It’s not THAT important to us.
@Fred Jensen:
Speak for yourself, but many Irish would be hesitant to throw the positive relation that Ireland has with it’s single largest trading partner down the drain to appease what is in reality a dying organisation that doesn’t care one bit about us.
@Jason Culligan:
Jason you’re young and have a lot to learn about making sure you’re not brainwashed about the world around you. UK is just 14% of our exports and almost wholely concetrated in the agri-food sector. We have a large trade deficit with the UK, we import almost twice as much from them as they do from us. The vast majority of the profit from that trade goes to the UK (Think of how much profit M&S make in Ireland). We would actually be better off as a country replacing trade with the UK with trade with the euro-zone.
@Fred Jensen/johnson: tell me how an open border is not that important to the island of Ireland again?? we have gone through this many many times before and you are never able to back it up
Fred – hold fire there, you have been banging in for months how the €100 billion annual trade deficit between Britain and the EU is immaterial to negotiations, but now you are using a much smaller trade deficit between us and GB to further your weak point.
When we had a banking crisis the U.K. Did not throw us under the bus, they gave us a loan along with the loan they helped the EU finance. However, the EU dud throw us under the bus and then the train and then laughed and mocked us. I don’t think we need to worry to much about GB, but the EU is the greater danger to us.
Jason the EU is a larger trading partner for us than the UK is.
@Jason Culligan: If the UK was never in the EU would we have the same level of trade with them? Unlikely, methinks.
Ricky – the EU trade figure is skewed because much of the trade is between us and Belgium, largely because if the port at Antwerp and is then forwarded on outside of the EU. In real terms our greatest trading partners are the US (approx 25 billion) and the UK (approx 12 billion) and both of them are seemingly intent on setting up a trade agreement without us and the EU. Further, the relationships of the EU with the USA and GB is deteriorating at quite a rate and we certainly need to consider this carefully. The EU continues to restrict with whom we can trade and what we can trade, which is placing us very precariously in Brexit and future US agreements.
@gjpb:
Three things are up for grabs here. The Sovereingty of the ROI, ensuring no change whatsoever in Irelands EU membership and ability to trade within the EU, and the open border.
Now I can tell you very clearly that the open border should be very much the last priority among those three. You shouldn’t even have to ask me why that is.
Fred – do you even read what you write? Point one is about Irish sovereignty and then point two is about maintaining the status quo with an entity we have largely ceded our sovereignty to.
@Fred Jensen: you listed 4 items there. nobody is saying or wanting the first 3 to be impacted by the open border. I have listed numerous disadvantages to you already of having a hard border. you have still to come up with any adv to it.
@gjpb:
Your brain is unable to comprehend that of the three things i mentioned, one of them has to give way in the negotiations.
Fred do you really think Ireland has sovereignty?? We answer to the EU. We do what they tell us to do and we need to get permission to do anything.
You are deluded.
Rebecca of course we have sovereignty. Our membership of the EU is down to it’s continuing support amongst the Irish people. If the majority want to leave then we would leave.
‘Concept that a state or governing body has the right and power to govern itself without outside interference’ – Sovereignty
I am DYING to hear how the above statement applies to Ireland. Hasn’t for a long time unfortunately.
@Fred Jensen: we don’t know what’s going to happen in the negotiations (May herself doesn’t even know). on top of all the other articles where you have been called out for talking rubbish, excuse me if I dismiss your opinion here too.
you should get another backup account ready as I would say your Fred Jensen account will be deleted soon enough too (on top of your Fred Johnson account).
@gjpb:
I think you’re confusing me for someone else….
Rebecca by that definition we should withdraw from the UN, the European Convention on Human rights basically every international agreement Ireland as a SOVEREIGN state has signed up to in the last 80 years or so.
No no. It’s the just the EU who directly controls our affairs.
Think you need to do some reading pal.
@Fred Jensen: nope, you are both the same troll.
Ricky – it is a fact that when you join the EU you agree to waive some of your sovereignty. I am sorry, but that is not even open to debate, it is part and parcel of membership. Odd that you appear not to know that.
Paul I am well aware that nations pool sovereignty in certain areas by joining the EU and other bodies. As are most people over the age of 12. My point is that ultimately this due to the fact that the people have decided to pursue this path. If we ever wished to leave the EU we could. It’s OUR decision not anybody elses. You do get that right?
Ricky – then perhaps you will start to respect the fact that the UK decided, democratically, to leave.
Remember, it was also our choice to say No to the EU twice, but they ignored us, like they did Netherlands and then we stupidly agreed to go again.
You may also want to apologise to Rebecca, who’s point was correct. We are in fact only sovereign in some areas and if we want to regain our true sovereignty we will have to vote on it, then debate it, then negotiate with the organisation we want our sovereignty back from, then we will have to financially pay for the return of our sovereignty and then we will be banned from trading with those we took our sovereignty back from. And don’t forget, whilst we are voting in it, the EU will spend millions of our money sending us propaganda as to why we don’t really want our sovereignty back, great, how democratic. Wow, you gotta love sovereignty, seriously, think deeper.
Paul when did I say I didn’t respect their decision. Are you going to apologise to me for accusing me of such????? We will no longer be sovereign when the people lose the ability to control our own affairs.
Ricky – just all your previous posts about “Brexitwonderland” “typical Brits” “weak hand” “economical suicide” “stupid” blah blah blah blah blah…..
And yet I never said I didn’t respect their decision. I disagree with it and believe it’s a mistake. Is that the same thing as not respecting it now?
Ricky – oh yes, calling people stupid is so respectful, get a grip.
FFS Paul I believe they made a stupid decision but respect their right to make it. Grow up! It’s not a difficult concept.
Ricky – FFS you won’t mind or be disrespected when I call you stupid then, great we are at one, ok stupid?
Jesus Paul this is embarrassing now.
Alt Facts from the Alt Tories. In their eyes we are a negotiating strategy, nothing more.
Customs will have a field day when people are bringing in products from a non-eu country = UK
@Paul Somers. And I’ll have a field day using green diesel in the car as all the customs officials will be tied up elsewhere.
Sounds like they want to use us to gain access to the single market. We’ll do all the buying and ye can ship it over lads :-)
Hard border so.
@Colm Ó Liatháin: Enforced by the Germans? No-one else wants it.
Theresa May explicitly said there will be no hard border on account of Britain, explicitly. However, should the EU want one that will be a different matter, but will be the requirement of the EU.
@Paul Fahey:
The British are the ones choosing to leave the EU, thus any hard border is a direct result of BRitish decisions.
Fred – so what is your point?
Fred – odd then that the British have been fine without a hard border for twenty years, but let’s ignore the actual facts. Let’s also ignore the fact that there has been a common travel agreement in place long before the EU ever existed. You will have to offer something a bit more detailed then “it’s the Brits fault”.
@Paul Fahey: As my memory serves it was the Irish customs who previously upheld the hard border. A particularly nasty bunch of individuals particularly in Monaghan and Louth who stopped and searched every vehicle. They really enjoyed their work at confiscating items bought in the north including condoms and tins of biscuits.
Chris – there was a border on both sides and they could be as difficult as each other. The British were not looking for excise payments as products were generally cheaper and more readily available there. However, they were looking for guns and people etc.. The Irish were looking for excise payments, with cigarettes, alcohol and fuel all significantly cheaper in NI.
Doesn’t matter what assurances Theresa May gives about a soft border as its incompatible with Brexit’s core policy of no freedom of movement of people…there will be a hard border.
Says nothing about protecting other EU citizens living and working in the UK or trying to safeguard British peoples status who are resident in EU countries. Ireland is being treated as a soft target to preserve the Good Friday Agreement and nothing more.
It does. Section 6
They’ll have a lot of redrafting to do is Le Pen wins in France and Wilders in the Netherlands.
@Marlowemallow: if she wins she will be a lame duck president. Look up cohabitation. Wilders can win the majority of the votes but he will never be able to form a government.
@David Fülöp: Nationalism is dissolving the EU. The era of neoliberalism, free trade and globalism are ending. How and when it happens and who pulls each plug are technicalities. It won’t be the end of the world. People will migrate and trade as they have done for millennia.
What will be disastrous is if our response is the kind of panic, hysteria and violence that Brexit and Trump have triggered. It will be particularly futile for Ireland to waste our energy trying to hold back the tide. We’re a minnow and we must learn to stay calm and adapt.
What discords will drive Europe into that artificial unity—only dry or drying sticks can be tied into a bundle—which is the decadence of every civilisation?” A Vision, William Butler Yeats
If anything, Le Pen has become less popular since Brexit. Even if she gets through to the Second Round of voting, there’ll be no more spread for her to capitalise on. Unlike the Brexit popular polls where there were a good few close calls, out of the 26 opinion polls for the Second Round in France, the best she has done was to lose by 18%. Unless something catastrophic happens, she’ll get obliterated.
@Guybrush Threepwood: The long term trend is clear. Those who were shocked by Trump and Brexit are clearly missing the big picture and will continue to be blindsided until they reintroduce themselves to reality. If Le Pen and Wilders lose or fail to produce results then that will have consequences from their electorate. And the long term process of the disintegration of transnational structures will continue.
@Marlowemallow: 100% correct they missed the facebook boat, where people get their ‘facts’ from small 3 inch by 3 inch images on their facebook feed. If thats the ‘truth’ and people lap it up then i guess we are all doomed.
@scoop delivery:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_French_presidential_election,_2017
As you can see from the little gains Le Pen gets from First to Second Round voting, the French seem to be more anti Le Pen than Pro anybody else.
Well they do still think we’re one of the ‘British isles’
You are aware that the geographical land mass referred to as North America also includes Canada?
‘we aim to have as seamless and frictionless a border as possible’ and I’d like to think at times I have a golf swing like Rory McIlroy. Its long over due now, but the UK government really should start producing documents on Brexit that are based in reality. There will be a border and it is extremely unlikely to be seamless or without friction.
Saying otherwise is fiction
Edge – so we should take your word on that rather than Theresa May and other politicians actually involved in the process. Theresa May has explicitly stated there will be no hard border between the north and south of Ireland.
I think their trying to butter us up to take us over again, they were only biding their time….at least they know what their doing hahaha
@stephen mc galey: they’re
Mmmm….. There was once a time when Britain worried that Ireland would be used by Europeans as a back door to invade them…. Now they want to use us as a front door to invade a Market. Ironic, in the last 100 years they lost an Empire that gave them access to a free market of 500 million people. Then just last year they vote their way out of a free market of 500 million people… A market they had access in without having to coerce anyone…..There’s opportunity in this…… But for us or them????
All the arguing back and forth, what would rats like you know about politics.
As many as that. Maybe check how often it’s after ‘Northern’
Hard border so.
Hard border/soft border, how about no border.
Here’s how this will go.. The UK promises to keep the border as “friction free” as possible. They exit customs arrangement and have to comply with border controls of an EU country. So, how to satisfy both? Answer, simple.. Technology. The solution to this impasse with be the implementation of a technology solution that allows “friction free” movement whilst at the same time fulfilling the EU border control requirements. Think number plate recognition, facial recognition, etc. I think it will be done in such a way as to offer little or no hinderence to anyone holding an EU or UK passport and technology will be the answer.
@Rodan:
That’s grand but there will still need to be a certain amount of phyical customs officers, at least to do random sport checks. It’s the only way to prevent smuggling. Can’t leave it all to technology.
How much will the technology cost.
If anything trump and Brexit strengthen the EU. Nothing like a common enemy to unite peoples. The harder trump tries to break up the EU, the more stubborn EU countries will become.
@jfn. Not sure about that. Orban and Putin held talks in Budapest yesterday. Ostensibly they were about Russia supplying parts for a nuclear reactor. Orban brought up how harmful he thought sanctions against Russia were and mooted the idea of forming a coalition of like-minded eu countries to lobby against them. Britain’s out, there are rumblings in France and the Netherlands, now orban has suggested this. I’m generally pro-eu. I think we need to remain, but the powers that be must get their act together and make real changes before it collapses.
The UK needs to be told by Ireland: ‘We are inescapably intertwined to Europe’!
‘When the UK leaves the EU, we aim to have as seamless and frictionless a border as possible between Northern Ireland, so that we can continue to see the trade and everyday movements we have seen up to now.’
In plain English. ‘There will be a hard border with customs and immigration checks’.
Anyone worried about the following?
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.C_.2016.299.01.0065.01.ENG&toc=OJ%3AC%3A2016%3A299%3ATOC
“Expand and accelerate the implementation of activation policies to increase the work intensity of households and address the poverty risk of children.
Pursue measures to incentivise employment by tapering the withdrawal of benefits and supplementary payments.”
So the EU wants here to create work by throwing people off the dole???
https://ec.europa.eu/ireland/news/eu-commissioner-moscovici-in-dublin-today-remarks-to-media_en
So the EU tells us everything, no matter what the UK says or does the final word always lies with the EU. That is not democratic at all.
@Alois Irlmaier:
That reminds me of the contempt they showed for Greece. It has gone way beyond a simple trading relationship now. Obviously the EU seek to eventually control all its members, but why?, what is their “end game?”.. This is why the UK will be treated harshly, because they dissented. I make two predictions, firstly the EU will seek to punish the UK financially for the decision it has made, and secondly that the whole article 50 process will be quietly “revised” and that following Brexit it will be next-door to impossible for other member states to follow suit and leave. We shall see, but by their actions during these times will the EU be judged..
@Rodan: Whatever it is, it will be an U.S. of Europe under 1 bank?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY3P-Fj4EHw
@Rodan: The EU is too corrupt and ex members become lobbyists for companys after their unelected role of power, it will not last.
Listen all ,brexit will happen and Britain will be far far better off,and you all will be stuck in an increasing dictatorship, federal state . Having to bow down to unelected bureaucrats, plus when you get all the immigrants from all over Europe in their thousands because all of Europe is an utter mess ,see how you feel then
Using Ireland as a bargaining tool
@James Mac An Ridire: As a tool anyway?
have your say