[citation needed] Ireland's first family planning clinic, the Fertility Guidance Company Ltd (later to change its name to the IFPA), was established by seven volunteers in Merrion Square, Dublin, in 1969.
Among the founder-members were Michael Solomons, a gynaecologist, Dermot Hourihane, a pathologist, James Loughran, Joan Wilson, and Robert Towers (editor of the Irish Medical Times).
They had acquired eleven doctors including another gynaecologist, Rosemary Jordan, sixteen lay workers, an extra nurse, a financial administrator, a waiting list of three to four weeks, and had seen 1180 new patients.
[3] On 22 May 1971, with the support of the IFPA, a group of Irish feminists travelled to Belfast by rail and made their return to Dublin laden with contraceptive devices as a statement on the illogicality of the law.
[citation needed] In 1988 the Irish Supreme Court barred family-planning clinics from telling pregnant women that lawful abortions are available in England.
[9] In 1991, the IFPA was fined IR£700 for selling condoms in the Virgin Megastore in Dublin, in contravention of the legislation which restricted sale of contraceptives to pharmacies and other approved outlets.
[11] In 2010 the court found that Ireland had violated the Convention by failing to provide an accessible and effective procedure by which a woman can have established whether she qualifies for a legal abortion under current Irish law.
[12] The court ordered Ireland to pay the Lithuanian woman €15,000 ($20,000) in damages and said Irish doctors must be given clear legal guidance on the eligibility rules for abortions.