After a number of informal meetings over several months, the National Association for the Deaf was formally incorporated on 5th June 1964. The primary objective of the founders was “to promote the welfare of deaf people and their families in all aspects of life”. After 40 years, I believe that this aspiration is as fresh as ever in our minds and continues to be the core objective that drives the excellent services NAD provides nationally.

The founder members, as listed in official documents, were all men. They included some prominent members of the legal profession and the then chairman of the National Rehabilitation Board (NRB), Desmond Doyle.

However, behind this initiative, but not signing the Memorandum with the ‘founding fathers’ were three spirited women - the ‘founding mothers’ of NAD. Molly Millen and Ann Robson were then young mothers with a deaf daughter each, and the other was the late Sr. Nicholas Griffey, otherwise known as Mother Nicholas. They, and the board of this new voluntary charitable organisation, immediately made contact with government departments and other agencies to lobby support for deaf causes. The birthplace of NAD was St. Joseph’s Home in Brewery Road (which later fostered the Irish Hard of Hearing Association and the Ann Sullivan Foundation also).

Although NAD had no full time staff at this stage, it made a very notable contribution to the quality of life of deaf and hard of hearing people and their families then, and continues to do so today.

A selection of notable milestones gives a small flavour of NAD’s heritage, but this does not tell the full story of an organisation which provided funds for schools and activities throughout the deaf community, and also proved itself a powerful advocate for many deaf individuals facing prejudice and discrimination at that time.

NAD founded Link magazine in 1968, and it continues today as a quarterly magazine. It’s long-time editor, George King, later served as chairman of NAD.

Deaf denied Certificates for Leaving Cert and Inter CERT

In 1968, NAD lobbied the Dept of Education to award certificates to deaf school-goers who successfully completed the Inter and Leaving Cert examinations. Before this, because they did not do Irish as a subject, they could not, technically, get a certificate - and you can imagine the knock on effect of that on jobs and further education.

In 1970, NAD was a founder member and force behind the establishment of the Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists - a forerunner to the one in existence today. Sr. Nicholas had by then, wearing both her NAD hat and her audiology hats, spearheaded the establishment of the Hearing Aid Service (1967) by NRB, nowadays the Health Board audiology services.

Rubella had been identified as a major cause of deafness in babies, and NAD was active in lobbying the Dept. of Health to take preventative measures.

In 1972, this prompting led to the Dept of Health’s first Rubella Vaccination Campaign, and was followed up in 1987 prior to the introduction of the MMR vaccine. The recent trend of a drop in uptake of MMR suggests that people forget just how dangerous measles and rubella can be.

NAD also began to lobby RTE for an accessible news programme for the deaf, leading RTE to establish in 1974, the world’s first subtitled News for the Deaf.

The 1970’s was a time when deaf school-leavers found it difficult to access further training, and deaf job-seekers found it almost impossible to get employment, whether properly paid or otherwise. NAD was influential in having a specialist vocational service for the deaf set up by NRB. The youth wing of this service worked closely with schools for the deaf and training centres to provide a career guidance and placement service. The Adult service worked closely with deaf job-seekers and employers to overcome the prejudice and offers of low wages in an era before equality legislation.

In 1975, NAD assisted Stan Foran to set up the deaf community magazine ‘Contact’, through the professional journalistic input of George King and by grant-aiding its publication over the following decades.

In 1978, we published the first Sign Language Dictionary (many times reprinted since then) and in 1979 we published Irislan (for non-communicating children) which led to formation of the LAMH system used by thousands of intellectually disabled children and adults. Stan Foran was deeply involved in all this work

By 1980, NAD branches were organising and funding volunteer escorts for enable hundreds of deaf children to travel safely between home and school each weekend.

In 1986, NAD was actively trying to establish a professional Interpreter Service, although it took a long number of years to gain the co-operation required to make this a reality.

In 1987, NAD began Communication Training (a forerunner of Deaf Awareness Training) and trained over 3,000 people in Business, Hospitals and Services.

In 1988, now with 3 staff, NAD undertook an ambitious 5 year National Access Initiative to improve access to telecommunications, television, interpreting and the environment. The success of this initiative can be measured by the following outcomes between 1988 and 1993.

In 1988, RTE launched the "Sign of the Times" TV programme for the Deaf community, now known as ‘Hands On’. In the same year the news Teletext service for deaf and hard of hearing people, HINTS, began as an initiative of NAD and RTE.

In 1989, NAD introduced the text telephone grant, supported by the Dept. of Social Welfare. This meant that a deaf person only paid 35% of the cost of a text telephone, enabling deaf people to use the telephone network for the first time ever in Ireland. This was followed in 1991 by NAD persuading Telecom Eireann to give a 70% rebate on their phone bills to deaf customers to balance out the higher cost of text phone calls.

In 1991, NAD established Deaftech to make assistive technology available to, and affordable by, deaf and hard of hearing people. Today this service supplies about 1,700 devices each year, of which over 40% are provided free.

In 1992, NAD was deeply involved with RTE in planning and introducing News for the Deaf in Sign Language, using only deaf presenters.

That year also, the ‘Sign On’ dictionary was published by NAD and the Sign Language Association of Ireland. It is still on the best sellers list with over 30,000 sold - far more than most Irish authors.

Other outcomes of the national access initiative were:

The Interpreter Grant Scheme provided by NRB (now FÁS) - resulted from a Seminar and Access lobby in late 1991. NAD was a founder member of AHEAD (Assoc. for Higher Education and Disability) that year. The Text Phone Relay Service advocated by NAD was finally set up by Telecom in 1993 - although it always suffered a lack of investment and never fulfilled its potential.

In 1995, the NAD Family Support Service was established with 4 social workers, which then developed into the integrated set of services available from the NAD teams nationwide.

In 1996, NAD founded the Irish Society for Mental Health and Deafness, and co-founded the Irish Tinnitus Association. NAD Resource Centres opened in Galway and the Midlands.

That year also, in close cooperation with the Irish Hard of Hearing Association, a Hearing & Communication Therapy Teacher’s Training Course was established. This is now the Diploma in Aural Rehabilitation and Hearing Therapy awarded by the National University of Ireland, UCD.

By 1997, NAD was to the forefront in providing literacy programmes accessible in ISL, and was heavily involved in highlighting this need.

In 1998, we opened an accessible Citizens Information Centre, supported by the NSSB, now Comhairle.

Between 1998 and 2002, supported by Health Boards, NAD opened Deafness Resource Centres in Dundalk, Limerick, Kilkenny, Killarney, Letterkenny and Wexford. There are now 10 fully staffed centres nationally and 15 outreach centres.In 1998, we also established the Speedtext Service to provide communication support to deaf students at 3rd level and we have continued to train Speedtext Operators until recently.

Since 2002, NAD has also provided an Emergency Accommodation Service, Respite services, Free Legal Aid services, Deaf Clubs and initiated a host of other activities in response to local demand.

Concluding this look back at 40 years, an abiding memory of the NAD I joined in 1987, is of the late Niall Mc Carthy, then a Justice of the Supreme Court, regularly acting as advocate for deaf individuals refused entry to pubs because they were deaf, or talking to landlords refusing to rent a flat to a deaf person, or trying to influence employers who wouldn’t employ skilled deaf people.

Many pub owners around Rathmines began to understand the term good-cop/bad-cop after ignoring a polite letter from NAD and an unannounced visit from this unknown gentle-spoken man who urged them to give up their common discriminatory practice of barring all deaf people from their pubs. They understood bad-cop when they received a letter on gold headed notepaper from the Chambers of the Right Honourable Niall St. John Mc Carthy, Justice of the Supreme Court, requesting them to justify their decision and asking was it possible that they might reconsider?!

That world may seem alien now, in a world of Equality Laws and Disability Rights, but it wasn’t only yesterday - it is today and tomorrow. NAD is re-experiencing these same prejudices against the deaf people of many nationalities who now make Ireland their home. The task of the founders is not finished, and those of us involved in the present NAD continue to draw on their spirit and on the spirit of many unsung heroes in the NAD of the past 40 years. We are only guardians of this spirit and accumulated experience, which we hold to pass on to the NAD of the future like the baton in a lifelong relay race.

I am proud to be involved in such a vibrant and caring organisation and proud of our great staff. We can confidently say "Yes, together we made an impact!"

Niall Keane

Head Office: 35 North Frederick Street, Dublin 1, Ireland.
Tel: +353 (0)1 817 5700 Minicom: +353 (0)1 817 5777 Fax: +353 (0)1 878 3629
Email: info@deafhear.ie Text messages: +353 (0)1 878 3629