During the 1940s and 1950s, there were several outbreaks of poliomyelitis in Ireland, especially in the Dublin and Cork areas. In response to the concern for those left with disabilities as a result of this illness, the Central Remedial Clinic was set up in April 1951 by Lady Valerie Goulding and Kathleen O'Rourke as a small non-residential treatment centre in a house in Upper Pembroke Street in the heart of Dublin.
Kathleen O'Rouke was a remedial gymnast with a special interest in rehabilitation therapy. She worked with patients on therapeutic exercises and trained others to do the same. Lady Valerie Goulding had already displayed her unique spirit of concern and charity through her previous work for the disadvantaged in Dublin. She was to prove a charismatic and persistent campaigner for the CRC and soon gathered a number of prominent business people together, who provided advice and helped her to raise funds.
In 1954 she had gathered sufficient funds to move premises to Goatstown, just south of the city centre. In these early years, the emphasis of the CRC was on providing medical and physiotherapy services for children and adults, but in 1956 a small primary school and sheltered workshop was opened.
As demand for the CRC's services grew, so too did its requirements for space. It was decided to move to the north of the city, as there were no services for people with physical disabilities there, and in 1968 the present purpose-built facility in Vernon Avenue, Clontarf was opened.
Lady Goulding was Chairman and Managing Director of the CRC from 1951 to 1984. A staunch believer in the value of early diagnosis and treatment, it was through her foresight and campaigning that services for children and adults with congenital physical disabilities were developed. She died in 2003 aged 85.
As polio has largely disappeared, the role of the Clinic has gradually changed. What was once a one-room clinic with two patients is today the largest organisation in Ireland for people with physical disabilities and provides a comprehensive range of services to almost 4,000 children and 500 adults throughout the country.