Outrage in Drogheda over proposed name change for Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital
People took to the streets in Drogheda to express their outrage over a proposed name change for Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
A letter circulated to hospital staff by the general manager read:
“While we continue to grow and expand our services here at the hospital, it is my intention as part of the Senior Management Strategic Plan for Quarter 1, 2019 to change the name of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda to one of the following:
1. University Hospital Drogheda
2. Drogheda Regional Hospital
3. Drogheda General Hospital
The proposed name change under a decision by the new hospital manager was called “bizarre” by Labour Senator Ged Nash.
Senator Nash said that to change the name would be “taking the heart” out of the town.
“The name of the hospital has a special place in the hearts of the people of Drogheda, it was funded by the people.
Mother Mary Martin and the Medical Missionaries of Mary played a significant role in the building of the hospital in the 1950s and locals felt a name change would dishonor her memory. When a fresco of her was removed from the main corridor in the hospital in 2015, it aggrieved the locals too.
Community activist.Seamie Briscoe wrote at the time:
' The town of Drogheda and it's citizens are indeed indebted to Mother Mary Martin and the MMM's for the wonderful contribution they made, and continue to make, to the well being of the town in establishing facilities and amenities, that would not otherwise have been created, to provide the employment and medical services it has so richly enjoyed down through the years.'
'I implore the HSE and the authorities in Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital to restore the memory in the form of the images of Mother Mary Martin, her benefactors and associates, to their rightful positions of public acknowledgement in a suitable vantage point in the hospital.'
Drogheda Mayor Frank Godfrey talked to Joe Finnegan about the opposition to the proposed name change. He said the very least the town could do to honour Mother Mary Martin was to retain the name of the hospital.
Finnegan asked whether it was right to show favouritism to one denomination of religion as Ireland becomes a more secular state.
Mayor Godfrey said he disagreed with that sentiment altogether and remarked that anything that's Catholic now, "they seem to be getting rid of it out of society."
"There are a few faceless bureaucrats in Dublin that want to remove anything Catholic from society."
He said the crosses were taken out of the wards and the statue of Our Lady was taken down from the grounds. They attempted to remove a 30 foot statue with a crane but because it was so embedded into the roof, they couldn't get it off. He said all of this was very annoying to the local people.
He said it was locals and others around Ireland who had paid for the Hospital for 2 shillings and 6 pence per brick and it was local labour which build the hospital for free for Mother Mary Martin whom he described as a saint.
Godfrey said they had tried to implement the name change the week before Christmas and they nearly got away with it only that locals got wind of the change and the news spread on the radio so that put a halt to it temporarily.
One protester at the march said "There is no point in changing the name. It's our heritage and it's the Dorgheda people who build the hospital".
Another said "It's an identity thing, I think we're losing our identity. We're just losing our identity to suit other people"
https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=iCptQwwc4M0
https://www.invidio.us/channel/UCgzyycFR6PEv-B90rAiFsQg
