Jonathan Irwin is a former stud owner and racetrack executive who, in his mature years, devoted his life to a foundation he set up with his wife Mary Ann called the Jack and Jill Foundation. He set up the foundation in 1997 to provide in-home nursing care for severely disabled children, or babies born with life-threatening, debilitating conditions, whose parents would otherwise be unable to afford such services. The Irwins set up the foundation in response to a tragedy which befell their own family in 1996, which would change the course of their lives.
Jonathan Irwin’s son Jack was born healthy, but for an unknown reason, he developed severe brain damage due to complications which occurred two days after his birth. According to Jack and Jill’s website, “While history does not reveal the immediate aftermath of this drama, it is probable that he died and was resuscitated. Certainly from that moment on, Jack could not swallow and was probably blind and deaf.” The doctor treating Jack advised the Irwins to leave him at the hospital so that he would not be a burden on his family and moreover, this would be the only way the state would be forced to provide care for him.
The Irwins, outraged and finding this attitude totally unacceptable, decided to care for Jack at home with the help of a local volunteer nurse. They received no assistance from the health services executive (HSE) which they found appalling. The Irwins vowed to help as many families as they could, who unavoidably found themselves in the same tragic situation. Jack lived for 22 months under the loving care of his family and a team of volunteer nurses by his side.
In the last 20 years, the Irwins, with the Jack and Jill Foundation, have helped thousands of families fund care for their severely disabled children in their homes. It is truly a monumental service to the country of Ireland and a gift to the children and their families they have helped.
So it was with a heavy heart that Jonathan Irwin stepped down as CEO last week in a shocking announcement via Twitter. His reason? To care for his daughter who is bedridden, following what he says was a severe reaction to the Gardasil vaccine. The usual vitriolic attacks from the motley crew of pro-HPV-vaccine-at-all-costs media reps, professors, doctors, and “concerned individuals,” which normally descends on such posts, was noticeably absent. It seemed like there was a kind of stunned silence that such a prominent figure as Mr. Irwin would make such a claim.
Then something happened which was quite unexpected. The “Bring Vaxxed To Ireland” group contacted Mr. Irwin via social media after seeing his post. They asked if he would like to share his daughter’s story with the Vaxxed team who were in town screening Vaxxed: From Cover-Up To Catastrophe at the Tivoli Theater that same weekend, amidst some (minuscule) drama. He graciously agreed, saying that he wished to help in any way he could.
Mr. Irwin invited the Vaxxed team to his home, on a Sunday afternoon, where they recorded this extraordinarily poignant interview where he talks about his daughter’s illness. He explains his decision to support the families of Regret, much like he did for the early Jack and Jill families. It seems Mr Irwin has a deep empathy and understanding of the vilification of these families by the medical establishment and has the courage to stand up for them when he sees such an injustice.
In what seems like a tragic parallel with his late son Jack’s story over 20 years ago, now his daughter Molly is suffering in a debilitating state after being given a vaccine which he refers to as a “disaster” and “useless.” He says that his daughter has lost her teenage life. She used to compete on the Irish pony team, an experienced equestrian, but no more. He is equally as horrified at the treatment other girls and their families have received from the HSE, who have dared to speak out. He vows to bring this issue to the door of the Health Minister Simon Harris and ask him to explain how he is being hysterical when his daughter is suffering the exact symptoms listed on the patient information leaflet provided by Merck. He wants to ask him why parents are not being given this important information about side effects from the manufacturer themselves.
Mr. Irwin says he will ask Simon Harris to explain the inexcusable things he has been saying about these parents and wants to ask who has been writing his scripts? He thinks that because of the way “Harris and his team” have treated those who dare to put their head above the parapet and defend their children, the HPV vaccine program is now in free-fall in Ireland.
I cannot believe in this tiny country there are 4__, maybe 500 families so badly affected, their daughter completely wiped out, and the reaction of the Health Service and particularly the Minister and a lot of other politicians and professors and doctors, all saying that they’re absolutely disgraceful. It is entirely their fault that the take-up rate has fallen from 87% to below 50%, and they are the outcasts and pariahs of society . . . . .
. . . These aren’t parents who’ve got some great plot. These are parents in desperate straits, and they are completely blacked by the fact that the organizations that should help them are in fact really trying to turn them into criminals. And that is so wrong. If my wife and I can stop that, we will. Jonathan Irwin 5/8/2017
Mr. Irwin’s video testimony is compelling, heart wrenching and empathetic. In keeping with his selfless attitude of helping families in the Jack and Jill Foundation for the last 20 years, he has now pledged his support for the 400 or so families in the parent support group REGRET, which will hopefully bring Simon Harris to task for the insanity that surrounds this issue in Ireland.
I have been writing about this topic for two years, trying to understand how this has been allowed to go on for so long without redress from the current Minister for Health and his predecessor, Leo Varadkar. We are so very sorry for Mr. Irwin’s daughter’s ill health, as his family has suffered so many tragedies throughout the years, but we will be forever grateful for his and his wife’s support in shining a light on the plight of the Gardasil Girls in Ireland.
So very grateful.
Note: This article was reprinted with the author’s permission. It was originally published by The Thinking Moms’ Revolution. Valerie Jackson is a native of Ireland, living in the U.S. She has a degree in business and worked in banking until her son was injured following a round of vaccines when he was one. She has since dedicated her life to his recovery and raising her young family to be as healthy as they can be.
6 Responses
I am so sorry to hear more reports of injuries of even more children and teenagers. Since the 1980’s I’ve watched, researched, listened, and talked to people about vaccinations and choices. I’ve heard first hand stories and have seen some of the injured too. It is incredulous that with so many pains voiced, for so many years, and associated links continuing to be recorded and shared, that the injuries and ill-health are still overlooked by the professionals who either have invested interest with pharmaceuticals, or I think, a blind-sightedness to the detrimental effects.
I am thankful for the people to professionals who step forward and speak, share, in order to seek changes, and also give support to those who have or have had injured children, or parents and guardians who choose not to vaccinate.
And as terribly hurtful as it is, thank you for sharing the pain, as until policies change, this will continue, and voices, reports, need to be present and accounted for.
Health SERVICE? Yeah… in the agricultural sense, where a BULL services a COW….. for the BENEFIT OF THE OWNER OF THE COW!
Dear Ms. Jackson, and Mr & Mrs Irwin, NIVC, and everyone behind VAXXED, and millions of other parents and families grieving the loss of the children they once knew, Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you for speaking out and sharing your stories and your research. Big Pharma thinks they have a lot of power, but they are a very small group compared to all of humanity — which has a right to a natural, healthy, life!
Thank you for this excellent article by Ms. Jackson and the wonderful efforts by Mr. & Mrs. Irwin, and all the dedication and superhuman efforts by everyone at Vaxxed and the NIVC (and excellent comments). It is absolutely unconscionable what is happening, that there are so many who are willing to aid and abet these criminal and inhumane actions all for the sake of greed and control by Big Pharma.
I am so relieved and happy to hear someone is taking on Big Pharma, with this HPV vaccination issue. It sounds like he has the countenance and monetary resources to stick with it! Hooray for the Irwin’s!
I am an RN, who has been forced to take multiple vaccinations, even when one was needed but 3 in 1 is all available like MMR. I used to take flu vaccine every year. However, now that I am a cancer survivor with multiple inflammatory illness which cannot be resolved, leaving me in a wheelchair on oxygen, I am not taking any other vaccines. I have seen first hand the knee jerk and excessive amount of live, attenuated diseases injected into human beings. At the poison center, I was taught to evaluate the research and consult with toxicology, I read voraciously to try to treat my personal medical problems. I see more doctors, many of whom do not know or believe me about various facts in my body and a few who do. I will also ensure my nieces do not take gardasil. I believe that the great rise in obesity, diabetes, allergies, asthma, autism, and more are due to ‘vaccines.’ Since these problems are not reversible for most people, and living with them is time and money consuming, the world needs to re-asses vaccines. No, we dont want to see kids in iron lungs from polio, but current cases of polio are occurring from fully immunized people. As are measles, and other outbreaks. I can read and understand toxicology and epidemiology texts and do. 2017 research tells us much we did not know even a decade ago, yet many health care professionals do not up-date their knowledge. Preventing problems is great, but it deems like more problems are occurring from the preventive (vaccines) than from the original illness, such as chickenpox. I was a L&D RN and many women have babies who have had biopsies or cervical problems and we know how to deal with that. Measles gave me poor eyesight, but glasses, contact, and lasix all work! Yet so many doses of MMR…it makes no sense. All youngsters would do better with healthy food, sunlight and exercise like we got as kids. The changes in sanitation and hygiene in the beginning of the 20th century are the real reason disease declined, yet we have different diseases now, from chronic inflammation. The decision must be made on whether we want to risk a death or injury from rubella, chickenpox and other childhood diseases or have damaged children from vaccines when they might never have been so affected without any vaccines. Then we must press WHO and all governments to allow us the right NOT to vaccinate out children or ourselves. Nurses must have tons of vaccines to not transmit a childhood disease but doctors and nurses transmit flu, colds, coughs, and antibiotic resistant bacteria like MRSA, which I got from cancer surgery, every day. Drug resistant TB is also on the rise, all because washing one’s hands has gone out of style for the shortcut between gloves in the patient room, of hand sanitizer. It was never meant to replace hand washing, but it has. This is a deadly trend. Only people who speak up and tell their story and force change will ever get the current paradigm changed to being able to refuse vaccines and not get told to stop coming to the doctor which pediatricians do in the USA. or kids cant go to camp or daycare. So doctors here must uphold the CDC of over 65 doses of vaccines and counting, and adding more for all adults and pregnant women! Refusing can get your children taken away from you here if someone makes a complaint. What I discovered from reading research is that vaccines were never tested for safety, better vaccines exist but governments make deals to buy a certain number of vaccines for a certain price and now we are hostage to taking vaccines and vaccine injured children/families in the US cannot sue nor can they easily collect from the vaccine court, which has no basis in law or prior practice even within itself. As soon as my niece got her first vaccines, she cried inconsolably for 24 hours. This is a sign of vaccine injury in infants. She used to be a happy infant but now has medical problems that effect her mood, discipline and closeness to people. Yet reporting this does not get her mom out of having to get vaccines for school and camp.So everyone who speaks up and everyone harmed, I feel admiration for the former and deep compassion for the latter. keep speaking out and doing research and linking so that it becomes possible to elect people who will stop the nation/big Pharma connection and free us all.