Launching Polio and us

Well-known writer and journalist Terry Prone launched "Polio and us" with a moving tribute to Polio Survivors who had endured so much as children and adults in 20th century Ireland.  She went on to say that they and their families had been let down by the State as had so many other people with disabilities during the early years of the Irish Republic.

Paula Lahiff, coordinator of this legacy initiative of the PPSG, acted as MC for the launch. She told the audience that the idea for this book germinated at the PPSG International Conference in 1999 when two delegates had booked accommodation separately, and were asked to share.  These two strangers stayed up until the small hours swapping tales and comparing notes on how they contracted Polio, where they were in hospital, what happened to them there, how their families coped, how they got through operations and physio and callipers and how they went on ultimately to lead full and active lives in spite of their disability.  Emotions were high and salt tears were shed in that hotel room that night, but ultimately, remembering things and putting words on them and above all, sharing them with someone else who has gone through a similar experience, is a very healing thing, and when these two ladies came down to breakfast the next morning they said: “We have to get everyone to write their own Polio story, so that when we Polio Survivors have passed on to our eternal reward, our stories will survive to let people know the devastation that was caused by the Polio virus, and how we in Ireland coped and how it shaped our lives, and what happened to us afterwards”.

The result is this very evocative book, edited by one of our members, Nuala Harnett who skillfully encouraged the authors to tell their stories and who brought the whole book together.  It will make you laugh and it will make you cry, it will make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck in places.  Above all it demonstrates the great courage, dignity, determination and good humour of all the authors and indeed of all Polio Survivors.  A high point of the launch ceremony was when two of the authors, Bridie Mc Mahon and Goodwin Furlong read from their stories, giving a flavour of what was inside.  Nuala Harnett finished the proceedings with a reading of the final piece in the book, a poem by Pat Ingoldsby.

Polio and Us is available to download on this website.  It has already been distributed to all members of the Group.  Extra copies can be obtained free of charge by our members for a limited period from: 

Post Polio Support Group,
Unit 319 Capel Building,
Mary’s Abbey,
Dublin 7. 

While there is no charge for extra copies of this book, a donation towards the work of the Post Polio Support Group would be very much appreciated.

View Photos of the AGM and Conference