RTE Late Late viewers were moved to tears during Friday night's show as campaigners spoke of the birth defects, hurt and distress caused to thalidomide survivors and their families.
It's been 60 years since the controversial drug was removed from the Irish market. Thalidomide was prescribed to pregnant women suffering morning sickness during the 1950s and right up until 1962.
It had been removed from the market internationally the year before but remained on sale here.
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It caused severe birth defects, including no limbs in some cases, as well as nerve damage, hearing, sight and organ issues.
Speaking powerfully on last night's Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy, Finola Cassidy, spokesperson for the Irish Thalidomide Association (ITA), described the medication as "a wrecking ball to the embryo."
Also speaking on the programme, John Stack, the youngest thalidomide survivor, said: "If they took it off when they were supposed to take it off, I wouldn’t have been affected".
There are around 40 remaining survivors of the the scandal in Ireland as well as two of the mothers, now both in their 90s.
"We have had 25 ministers for health since 1959 when the drug came to Ireland," Ms Cassidy added on the show. None of them have apologised to survivors or their families and she pointed out that UK authorities have issued an apology to those affected there.
Viewers were quick to praise the contributors to last night's show and demand action from the Government.
One said: "I cannot understand why they have to go on the #LateLate to get what everyone knows they deserve."
Another wrote: "Sending love to all Thalidomide victims and their mothers in Ireland and elsewhere. How amazing are those who speak on their behalf."
A third tweeted to the Taoiseach and said: "Do the right thing by these people, who have been wronged, for the whole of their lives."
Finola Cassidy spoke to the Irish Mirror ahead of an appearance on the Late Late Show last night.
She said: “We just want four things from the Government, nothing major, first, apologise for it.
“Second, accept into the fold the small cohort of previously unacknowledged survivors, we believe there are only about 12 (these people have been acknowledged by international medical experts as having been affected by Thalidomide, but they fall outside the Government’s window of responsibility).
“Acknowledge the mistakes and basically a fair deal going forward, that’s it, just four points.”
Ms Cassidy added: “Two Thalidomide Mothers, both now in their 90’s, Peggy Murphy from Cork with her son Martin and Mary Clarken from Portlaoise with her daughter Sharon, just want to hear ‘it was not their fault.’
“The State’s defence strategy, orchestrated through the State Claims Agency, of never apologise, never settle, admit nothing, time people out, is a hallmark of the treatment the remaining 40 Irish survivors have endured.”
John Stack is the ‘youngest’ of the Thalidomide survivors and is the current chairman of the Irish Thalidomide Association (ITA).
He told the Mirror: “The State would prefer us all to be dead before we receive an apology for what happened, especially the Mothers.
“Just like nursing home issues, hepatitis c, people with haemophilia, the State’s legal approach is to try to time you out.
“We are determined while we breathe to force the State to acknowledge us and our parents."
"We have waited a very long time, over 60 years, and we cannot afford to wait any longer. “You’d have to be in the whole of your health to keep this relentless campaign going – and we aren’t.
“Our health and mobility is failing and it will only get worse.
“This has been the fight of our lives, for all our lives and our parents' lives, and it is time the Government ended the battle with us.”
The ITA believes that: “today the world has a correct and cautious approach to the taking of any medicines during pregnancy as a direct result of the evidence that Thalidomide left in its wake.
“Thalidomide was the damaging ingredient in a variety of trade names of tablets, syrups etc prescribed to pregnant women and sold over the counter to ease ‘Morning Sickness’ in Ireland from 1959.
“The biggest seller here was called ‘Softenon’. 51,000 packets of Softenon alone were sold in Ireland in 1961.
“It caused thousands of miscarriages and those babies who survived the pregnancy were born with catastrophic injuries; missing or foreshortened limbs, organ damage, deafness and painful nerve ending damage.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health last night said: "Following discussions in recent months it was proposed that Government and the Irish Thalidomide Association would enter into a process to advance a range of issues raised by the Irish Thalidomide Association.
"There is ongoing engagement with the Irish Thalidomide Association regarding the format of the process.
"A chair for the process has been agreed.
"The Government is committed to advancing that process as soon as possible."
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