Paddy McGrath's Asthma Cure, Ireland 1971

Paddy McGrath who has asthma is alleviating his symptoms with a rather mysterious type of medicine.
Paddy McGrath has had asthma for the past twenty years. He has attended numerous doctors, with limited degrees of success. Local cures have also helped for a short while, but he feels he is onto a winner with his current medication, however unorthodox it may appear.
A spoonful of this cure which is the colour of brandy, alleviates his symptoms, especially when he feels an asthma attack coming on.
Procured from a man who got it from his great-granduncle, Paddy McGrath has committed to take it for seven months but is unable to divulge any information about the cure’s ingredients.
I know myself what’s in it, but I can’t disclose.
Paddy McGrath does not compare himself to healer Finbar Nolan, but he has passed on this cure to other similarly afflicted people, who have reported positive results.
They seemed to be getting a good night’s sleep, where before they weren’t.
This report for ‘Newsbeat’ was broadcast on 24 March 1971. The reporter is Cathal O’Shannon.
‘Newsbeat’ was a half-hour feature programme presented by Frank Hall and ran for seven years from September 1964 to June 1971. ‘Newsbeat’ went out from Monday to Friday on RTÉ television and reported on current affairs and issues of local interest from around Ireland. The final programme was broadcast on 11 June 1971.

[@FortitudineVincimus]

If I had the cure, I'd make it available to everyone, without the 5,000% mark up.

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

Good on you and your most generous and kind heart

[@Thegarygreen]

That man is only 26😳

[@johnodonoghue651]

Steroids in the 70's were the only treatment. Now there are better drugs, but no cure. He's FOS.

[@fiddlejohn9305]

You’re mostly right. Salbutamol was introduced in 1966, and there were other adrenaline related drugs, but steroids were the mainstay of treatment. The side effects of all these drugs were significant. My mom says I would “be walking around six inches off the ground” after taking those meds, but at least I could breathe.
I wonder what ingredients were in that bottle? Oftentimes the folk remedies had herbs with chemical compounds that were isolated then produced and sold by pharmaceutical companies at a much elevated cost). I’ve met a few pharmacognocists and ethnobotanists and it seems they had very interesting jobs. My grandmothers’ remedies (North Carolina and Idaho) seemed to be a mixture of Irish, Scottish and English remedies, African,Mexican and Basque remedies, but mostly Native American ones. They didn’t have any NA, African, Mexican or Basque ancestry, but they learned from their neighbors. When someone is sick, (especially a child) neighbors helped neighbors regardless of ancestry.
Any recommendations for books on Irish folk medicine?