Irishman who discovered cure for leprosy honoured
Dr Vincent Barry, a native of Sunday’s Well in Cork city, is credited with the development of the compound used in drugs that have helped to cure about 15 million people.
The Leprosy Mission, an Irish organisation set up in 1874, last night honoured Dr Barry for what it describes as the greatest Irish humanitarian achievement in history.
Broadcaster and science journalist Leo Enright, who chairs the Government’s Discover Science and Engineering programme, gave a lecture at the event hosted by the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, of which Dr Barry was president from 1970 to 1973, two years before his death.
Mr Enright said Dr Barry’s humanitarian story doesn’t often hit the headlines, despite radically altering the lives of 15m people. He said the venue in Dawson Street was appropriate, located between St Stephen’s Green, which was once a leper colony, and Trinity College Dublin, where Dr Barry’s historic research was carried out.
Having previously worked for the Medical Research Council on chemicals to tackle tuberculosis, Dr Barry took on the leprosy bacteria in the 1950s. The clofazimine compound his team came up with underwent various trials and was proven in the 1970s to be an effective way of killing the leprosy infection when combined with two other antibiotic drugs.
Dr Barry attended the North Monastery secondary school in Cork’s northside before training as a chemist at University College Dublin.
Tony Duggan, principal of Gaelcholáiste Mhuire at the North Monastery, said the school is extremely proud to claim such an internationally distinguished scientist as one of its own.
Leprosy Mission chief executive Ken Gibson presented a drawing of Dr Barry by artist Sarah Tynan to UCD president Dr Hugh Brady for permanent display in the college.