{"id":670795,"date":"2026-10-31T11:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/670795\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T11:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:02:10","slug":"seventy-years-on-from-corks-polio-epidemic-some-still-living-with-the-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/670795\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventy years on from Cork&#8217;s polio epidemic some &#8216;still living with the consequences&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">Seventy years after the  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.echolive.ie\/corknews\/arid-41925475.html\">Cork polio epidemic<\/a>, the city still remembers the victims, and the consequences borne by those who lived through it, a group of survivors has heard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In the summer of 1956, an outbreak of poliomyelitis in Cork caused 220 cases of \u2018infantile paralysis\u2019 and cost the lives of five children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Polio is a highly infectious disease spread through person-to-person or faecal\u2013oral contact.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Its effects range from a minor transient illness to long-term paralysis and even death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">However, most cases produce very mild or no symptoms and these usually go unrecognised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Polio can strike at any age, but it mainly affects children under the age of five.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The last recorded case of wild polio in Ireland was in 1984.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Between 25% and 50% of those who have recovered from paralytic polio in childhood can develop post-polio syndrome decades later, with symptoms including chronic pain, muscle weakness, mobility and respiratory issues, and extreme fatigue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Lord Mayor of Cork, councillor Damian Boylan, recently addressed a gathering of organised by Polio Survivors Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He said that while polio is something most Irish people only know from history books, for survivors, it had affected the course of entire lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cSeventy years on, we have a responsibility to remember what happened in Cork, to listen to those who lived through it, and to ensure that their experiences continue to inform how we care for people today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe should never forget the fear. We should never forget those we lost. And we should never forget those still living with the consequences,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">M\u00e1ire N\u00ed Chorcora, a polio survivor originally from Mallow, said the Lord Mayor\u2019s \u201ckindness and decency\u201d had meant more to survivors than he could know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cFor much of our lives we lived with the stigma of a disease that was considered shameful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cTo be recognised in this way is so important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seventy years after the Cork polio epidemic, the city still remembers the victims, and the consequences borne by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-670795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}