Ireland's only quintuplets celebrate 18th birthday at the Rotunda Hospital

The Rotunda Hospital in Dublin welcomed back the 'famous five' Cassidy quintuplets, to celebrate their 18th birthday.

From County Wexford, the quintuplets were born in the hospital on 16 August, 2001 at just over 25 weeks' gestation. Conor, Cian, Rory, Amy and Dearbhail and their parents Veronica and Kevin Cassidy returned to the Rotunda Hospital to celebrate the milestone birthday with the staff who spent several months caring for them in 2001.

Professor Fergal Malone, Master of The Rotunda, put the siblings' births in a wider context: "Multiple births have become increasingly common in the last 10 years, with about three in every 1,000 pregnancies being a twin, triplet or higher order multiple gestation. There has been a 30% increase in the number of successful twin births in the last two decades, which is due to wider availability of assisted reproductive technologies (such as IVF) and older maternal ages at conception.

"However, the number of triplet, quadruplet and quintuplet births has halved, due to more effective controls on assisted reproductive technologies. With multiple births, there is a 95% survival rate for twins, 70% for triplets and 50% for quadruplets. It is clear however that quintuplets are very rare today, with the Cassidy quintuplets being the only set in Ireland."