'What else do we have to do,' asks Tipperary thalidomide survivor

A Clonmel man who is one of 40 thalidomide victims in Ireland has hit out at the long delay in compensating survivors and issuing an apology for the delays in alerting women to the drug’s effect on unborn children.

“We’re just asking, in the name of God, what else do we have to do,” said Kieran Lyons.

“We’ve had to lead lives we didn’t ask for.”

Thalidomide was a drug manufactured by German company Grunenthal and was available in Ireland in the late 1950s and early 1960s for pregnant women badly affected by morning sickness.

It was initially hailed as a wonder drug for pregnant women but in 1961 the manufacturer became aware of concerns about the effect it had on the unborn child, and in January 1962 warnings were sent to doctors and pharmacies in Ireland.

However, it was not withdrawn from the Irish market until later that year.

The children of mothers who had taken the drug were born with birth defects.

62-year-old Kieran Lyons, son of Davy and Peggy Lyons, was born on March 5, 1960 without fingers and toes, after his mother had taken the drug. His left foot is clubbed and he also has problems with his hearing.

To this day he suffers pain in his knees and shoulders, which he says are “killing him”.

“It’s ridiculous that it’s dragging on for so long. There are only 40 of us left, and five mothers, and we deserve some kind of decent healthcare package and some compensation.”

He says that the Government’s failure to compensate victims is costing the State millions of euro, when it could have been sorted long ago.

He describes the offer of €62,500 to each victim during Mary Harney’s term as Minister for Health from 2004 to 2011 as an insult.

The campaign to compensate victims and issue an apology has intensified in recent times. The story was featured on a Scannal documentary on RTÉ television recently, and in September survivors met with Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Government Buildings.

Speaking in the Dáil in July, the Taoiseach stated: “We would like to resolve this on a range of issues they have raised with us.”

Meanwhile, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said in the Dáil in September: “Hopefully we will get a conclusion under this Government.”

Kieran Lyons said it was good that the campaign was receiving such publicity, and that more and more people were becoming aware of “what a disgrace this has been”.

He said he had received a lot of messages of support in the wake of the recent Scannal documentary.

“People cannot believe this hasn’t been sorted,” he says.

He welcomed the meeting held in September between members of the Irish Thalidomide Association and the Taoiseach.

“In 60 years no Taoiseach has ever agreed to meet us, Micheál Martin was the first to do so.

“This didn’t happen on his watch but he has the power to stop it,” he says.

Kieran Lyons has previously spoken to The Nationalist about a childhood that was mostly spent in and out of hospital, including a year and a half in a full body cast in the orthopaedic hospital in Croom, county Limerick.

He had a caliper splint on his leg “for years” when he was young. In a futile attempt to improve his deformities, he underwent 35 medical operations from the time he was a baby until he was 15.

At one stage it was suggested that his right arm should be amputated, and he begged his mother not to let the doctors cut his arm off. Fortunately, it was one procedure that didn’t go ahead.

As a child he was given the last rites 13 times.