Save the Name protest takes place outside the Lourdes Hospital
CAMPAIGNERS are determined to keep the name of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in the headlines - a recent march followed up by a protest outside the hospital last week.
Recent weeks has heard various stories about the future of the name, but the ‘Save the Name’ committee are pressing ahead with their bid to secure confirmation from the HSE and hospital management that the name will remain.
Kevin Byrne from the committee said that last week’s protest got great support from those passing by.
The next element will be a protest outside the Dail on Thursday February 7 at noon. People are invited to come along on the day and be part of the event, which will involve a letter being dropped in to the minister.
Robert McGuffin, chairman of the committee, has written to hospital chiefs, asking for further clarity on the situation.
He said the group had concerns about how news of the name change leaked out, feeling it should have been discussed with the people of the town and region long before the leak.
The name of Our Lady of Lourdes came, initially, in 1939 when Mother Mary Martin, who had founded the MMMs two years earlier, was invited to come to Drogheda and set up a maternity hospital at Beechgrove House. Her new hospital adopted the name of the small Chapel of Ease that Mon Eugene O’Connor was building at Hardman’s Gardens, Our Lady of Lourdes.
Cardinal McRory blessed both buildings on December 8, 1939 and the first baby was born in the ‘Lourdes’ on January 10, 1940.
It was later agreed that a new general hospital would be built as a training hospital for the MMMs with the sod turned on September 8, 1952.
The first three floors were opened in October 1956 and it was officially named the International Missionary Training Hospital (IMTH), but the fact that it had the name already of Our Lady of Lourdes, local people made sure that was retained.
It lost the IMTH title when the Health Board took over the hospital in the late 90s.