In the mid-1950s in Cork, cerebral palsy sufferers were left to their own devices. There was no treatment available and no support services. Then, in 1955, the Cork Spastic Clinic, as it was known, was established.
Things began to improve for parents whose children were born with the condition.
Today, the National Association for Cerebral Palsy Ireland is now known as Enable Ireland, and its services in Cork are provided by the more benignly named Lavanagh Centre which grew out of the clinic started all those years ago by Mr Tom Delanty, the late Gus Healy and others.
The Lavanagh Centre now has a staff of more than 100 and over 1,100 patients on its books. It has achieved wonderful improvements for cerebral palsy sufferers and others, and provided facilities that could never have been envisaged when the original clinic opened its doors at Brown Street in 1955.
The term "spastic" was applied to child sufferers because of the spasticity or stiffness of the limbs associated with the condition, which varies from mild through to severe mental impairment.
In 1969, the Lavanagh Centre was opened on the grounds of the Lavanagh estate in Ballintemple and children with conditions other than cerebral palsy, such as spina bifida and muscular dystrophy, are now also treated there. A major fundraising drive is under way for the construction of a new clinic with state-of-the- art facilities, including a new school and hydrotherapy pool. This will cost an estimated €11.43 million.
The story of how the service started and developed over the years through local commitment and voluntary effort has been told by Mr Phil O'Donovan in The Lavanagh Story - A History 1954 to 2000. The author is a member of the Lavanagh executive board. As the service looks to new horizons, his account is a timely and highly readable one.