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

 

25 Responses to “Paddy Doyle: We need to know if we were used as guinea pigs”

  1. Paddy says:

    Thanks for that Jack. I spent time in Cappoquin and I’ve written about it in my book, THE GOD SQUAD. Paddy

  2. jack says:

    “There’s absolutely NO DOUBT that the Religious Orders (known to the Gardai) enriched themselves on our labours and our bodies and it appears also they enriched themselves on these drug/product trials.”

    known to the Gardai. yes indeed. but the Gardai is an arm of the state and Club Member. child abuse crimes something to coverup with the assistance of the owned media and press.

  3. Paddy says:

    I’ve passed your message to Neil together with his comment. Best wishes. Paddy

  4. Nuala Brodie says:

    Dear Paddy,

    Coud you put me in touch with Neil Hubbard who posted in Nov 2011. My mum was in Newtownforbes and I may be able to help him.

    Thanks

  5. MaryCornish says:

    The drugs were not only in the sixties & 70. I was in Goldenbridge from 1935 /1950 and I remember when the heads of some of the children were shaved and then their heads were put under a blue lamp .about 20 of the children were taken out somewhere and when they came back to goldenbridge there were all sick for days
    that was in 1949. i was about 14 @ the time

  6. imelda baker RE:late Andrew John Baker says:

    Hi Paddy my dad died just befor the application for the vacceain trials was given ,he was in artaina and was subjected to suger lumps and brown medican he clearly documents that this happend,

  7. Neil Hubbard says:

    Hi guys, Paddy. I wondered if you could help me and my Mum most of all. She was in The Sisters Of Mercy in Newtownforbes Longford (1950-1966). And I don’t need to tell you all how all this horrible treatment effects people that have been in these environments, even as her Son I still see how it has effected her and when my kids play at her house she still finds it hard to let herself go and have fun.. But she has the biggest heart in the world and I’m sure you all can relate to this in one way or another. What i want to do is find the right way to find out if Trails we carried out on her also if she can find more family. She doesn’t speak of it at all and when asked she clams up but she deserves more and we have spoke about this and she is ready to help herself so to speak. We need to know about the right way to claim compensation also. This has not been publicised at all and we have only just found out about it. Peace to all and thanks in advance.
    Regards. Neil and Anne

  8. IMELDA BAKER says:

    there still testing on children in care all over the world

  9. Paddy says:

    I was in St. Michael’s Cappoquin but that was in the 1950’s. Maybe someone will be able to help you out on this one. Paddy

  10. Margaret Halpin says:

    Hi does anyone remember me in St Michaels Cappoquin in 1972 to 73, would love to hear from you.
    I need to get more information on my time there.

  11. marian hibbeler/nee brennan says:

    my sister and I was in st Josephs kilkenny, she was only a baby at the time , she has large scares on her bottom from Injections given to her and still has them . they said she was not entitled to compensation because she was only a child . now Paddy I know she was only a child but i think she is entitled to something , they will always be there to remind her ,

  12. Francine says:

    I remember that they used to wash our hair with a dog wash called malawash. its main ingredient is maldison. Not to be put on human skin. We were given little purple and blue pills, we lined up for them. I was given cigarettes when i became a teenager, and contraceptives when i was 12. my legs became numb (triqualler ed)

  13. MARY WARD says:

    I Remember very well being very sick and dizzy in goldenbridge after having an Injection I vomited in front of the Nun she slapped me hard around the face and used her stick on my legs and forced me to eat my own vomit, , I would appeal to those who went into goldenbridge during the middle 1960’s and later please don’t BULLY the older victims from early’er years this has been happening which has driven away the real victims in fear except one or two who still live in Ireland and >MOST of us NEVER< got to USE ANY OF THE SERVICES WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FOR THE victim'S ,THINK

  14. kathleen brack says:

    well paddy the ddt we had to put it on our blankets for fleas it was white powder we had to put it on the blankets and shake and every saturday we were sent to the dormatories with a pot to pick the dead fleas out of the blankets the more fleas we got we were in the matrons good books and also paddy if we were pale looking in the face we were given FERRETS SULFATE they were iron tablets its says on the net not to be taken without consulting your doctor and keep out of reach of children sure paddy we were only children i know now why i always had cramps in my stomach and then she would give me a large white tablet i think the name of it was vedgeaton for the pain just looking at the net about ddt i was banned world wide in the early 70s they recon it causes cancer i wonder how many girls have died if cancer in later years including my beautiful sister margaret including a lot of birds and there eggs anyone else have a story on this

  15. robert says:

    the vaccine trials should be made headline news until we get the answers
    how in gods name are we supposed to trust any government and religious orders with our children.

    THE MEDIA NEED TO ACT NOW IN IRELAND OR WE MUST HAVE THE WORST CASE OF PROPAGANDA IN THE WHOLE WORLD.
    THEY NEED TO PRESS THE GOVERNMENT AND RELIGIOUS AND THE LABS FOR THE TRUTH.
    ARE THE MEDIA COWARDS?
    SEEMS THAT WAY RUN BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE GOVERNMENT.
    THE MEDIA OWE THIS TO ITS PUBLIC OR I SAY WE PUBLISH A BAN ON ALL MEDIA BOYCOTT THE MEDIA AND HAND OUT LETTERS TO THE PUBLIC OUR SELVES.
    THIS IS A THE WORST THING ON THE PLANET WHAT HAS, IS HAPPENING HERE IN IRELAND.
    THE MEDIA OF IRELAND IS CONTROLLED IT IS SO VERY OBVIOUS.
    IF THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO WHAT IT LIKES WE ARE ALL IN GREAT DANGER OF THE WORST KIND OF DICTATORSHIP OF ALL TIME.
    THEY WILL DO WHAT EVER THEY LIKE AND WE THE PUBLIC WILL HAVE NO VOICE AT ALL.
    PEOPLE OF IRELAND SPEAK UP NOW.
    OR WILL YOU ALLOW THIS NONSENSE TO PERSIST.
    YOU ALL OWE THIS TO YOUR CHILDREN FOR THE FUTURE.

  16. Rose says:

    Does anyone remember being fed with what was called ‘toffee.’? We got it periodically.It was in a round tin. We had to line up for it. The same spoon was put in to each one of our mouths one after the other. I remember the iodine, ddt, and the cod liver oil too. Why did we get weak, why did we vomit up our food so much. why was it fed back into us? Can we honestly believe they will ever tell us the truth?

  17. Portia says:

    ‘Suffer the Little Children’

    And that is what it was meant to be- for children of virgin birth especially to suffer.

    Psychopaths running god’s prisons for children.

  18. jack says:

    I did recieve a form to fill regarding drug trials. on sendig it back. to be told, trials such as these only refered to the 1960 onwards. not before . my recollections are quiet clear as in the 1940.I was aged 10 to 16 then, so more cover ups as per usual
    need i say more ,Ferry House

  19. Martha says:

    It may come as a shock to many Irish people today, but the Irish Medical Establishment is inherently the same institution it was since its formation, based as it is on Roman Catholic ideology. Therefore, ANYONE relying on their health remedies/cures are potentially (if not, actually) their Guinea Pigs – with or without Private Health Insurance.

    Just to spell it out very clearly: the Irish Health System is run by profiteering sociopaths, as has always been the case. Plus ca change…

  20. Andrew says:

    In Ferrhyouse one group got sugar lumps while the other got injections. Then there was the line for one toothpaste and the other line for Colgate. I remember the ‘Cod Liver’ stuff as well in Kilkenny – a huge ceramic jug and a soup spoon – something runny and brown was added to every second child’s spoon.

    How accurate could the results of these kinds of trials be? Remember we were underfed for a start – contemporary documents bear that out – also most of us had runny noses and chilblains ALL the time; then there was the outbreaks of scabies and having our bodies scrubbed with some kind of iodine(?) and purple gentian. Anyone remember the regular dusting of DDT on our bodies, our clothes and our beds? Not forgetting the regular doses of Epsom Salts we had to endure.

    There’s absolutely NO DOUBT that the Religious Orders (known to the Gardai) enriched themselves on our labours and our bodies and it appears also they enriched themselves on these drug/product trials.

  21. Rob Northall says:

    My wife remembers queing up at bed time being spoon fed “Cod Liver Oil” and taking “Vitamins”! Takingg into account the food she discribed and the fact that every morning she would have to fight for a secondhand pair of shoes out of a cupboard?

    I can’t really see that they spent money on dietary supliments? CAN YOU???

  22. paul nolan says:

    Hi. paddy.
    I was in St Patricks. Upton Co. Cork, in the mid sixties. I clearly remember having a brown substance put on a plaster, which was put om my forearm, i had to keep the plaster on for 24 hours, Clear liquid on sugar lumps which i had to eat. I was also injected with drugs several times. I dont know if this was drug trials. BUT IT HAPPENED. Like you Paddy memories of the smells and the visual surroundings never leave you.
    Paul Nolan.