The history of the birth of an international headache forum is rather protracted. However, it is probably even more turbulent than it is protracted. Generally, it is a challenge to try to get at the inner nature – the ‘core’ – of a story, to give it the right dimensions and to place it into the right context. Then, if one is personally engaged, the matters of objectivity and keeping a correct distance from the item also come into the picture. As far as the International Headache Society (IHS) is concerned, the present author has a background of being a Nordic headache researcher who, from the beginning, witnessed its development as an attentive and interested person. He soon became convinced of the importance of having an IHS, and in the later phase, he served as an active and devoted worker for this cause. This story concerns the stepwise development leading to the founding of the IHS, seen through the eyes of the author. The background of the present communication – and of the timing of it – is that, internationally and in recent times, there have been some misconceptions concerning the early stages of IHS. Because the IHS’s international development was followed so closely, the following account ought not to deviate substantially from the essence of the real story. The sources of this narrative have been: participation in ‘all’ international events pertaining to this matter; the minutes from the Florence 1980 conference by F Sicuteri’s secretary, Rosalynd Pio; a circular by Edgard Raffaelli Jr, from approximately 2002; a couple of rather brief articles by the author concerning the early stages of the IHS; early correspondence regarding the matter and personal notes covering this whole period; and, above all, memories of the specific events. The North Americans were the pioneers of national headache work: they formed the American Association for the Study of Headache (AASHA) in 1959, which held annual meetings. From 1961, the Americans had their own headache journal – Headache – the first such journal in the world. The Americans apparently had seen the light. One ought to follow them in every respect. The Scandinavians followed the American example. In the mid to late 1960s, headache interest exploded in the Nordic countries. The Scandinavians founded the Scandinavian Migraine Society in 1968. This society consisted of separate countries’ societies: the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish Migraine Societies. Somewhat later, a Finnish branch was founded. The Scandinavians held annual conferences on a rotating basis. They even had a small journal, with reports from these conferences: Proceedings of the Annual Meetings of the Scandinavian Migraine Society. Young researchers were invited from both sides of the Atlantic for the annual meetings, and one began to realise the usefulness of such meetings for the exchange of ideas. In several countries, such as the UK and Australia, high-level headache work was being carried out. In other countries, such as Italy, headache work was well underway. As such, there was rapidly growing, multinational headache interest. However, a genuine international headache forum in the true sense of the term would add another dimension. The first extra-Scandinavian forum in which the idea of an international headache organisation was vented (and in which the author was involved) was the X International Congress of Neurology, held in Barcelona in 1973. In a couple of small groups, during coffee breaks, an international headache forum was hinted at, just to see how the land lay. Responses were diverse: partly enthusiastic, partly neutral, but also – somewhat unexpectedly – partly cautious: it was advised that one must not offend ‘the establishment’. The overall advice was: ‘We do not want another body. Work within already established fora!’ The climate for further activity