Producer Siobhán Bourke

I had followed the press coverage about Dr. Neary since 1998 and I always wondered why his surgical malpractices took so long to be exposed.

When the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry report was published in 2006, I was struck by the strong praise Judge Maureen Harding Clarke reserved for the whistleblower - the person who exposed the wrongdoing at the hospital.

I was fascinated that there was a young woman worthy of an 'award of bravery' who had the strength of character to speak out against what she knew to be wrong, regardless of the personal cost to her. I thought that not only was this a compelling story that would make an engaging drama but the personal courage that was involved in revealing wrongdoing was an important issue for all of us to consider.

This television drama captures the stories of the patients, the events uncovered in the Lourdes Hospital Inquiry Report and especially the key story of the midwife who blew the whistle. In using the format of a television drama, we were hoping to achieve a different kind of public understanding of events that went beyond the facts and figures to appreciate the suffering of the women and the courage of the whistleblower who said "stop".

The substantial media coverage that this issue attracted has undoubtedly raised public consciousness of the events in Drogheda. The creation of Whistleblower as a drama has allowed us to tell the story in a way that people can more easily relate to.

People relate to people and our hope is that in the characters and situations depicted in the drama, we have captured the essence of what these women suffered and how much was involved in the investigation of the situation.

This drama was based on the experiences of everyday, ordinary women, mothers, nurses, doctors and civil servants. What I hope this drama conveys is that ordinary people can and do have extraordinary courage.

- Siobhan Burke