Lourdes Hospital always inspired
HUBERT MURPHY LOOKS BACK AT THE FILES FROM 1984 AND HOW THE ROLE OF THE NURSING STAFF IN OUR LADY’S OF LOURDES REMAINS AS CONSTANT AS EVER WITHIN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
XHE importance of the nursing profession, and its role as the premier caring body in this country was emphasised by successive speakers at last Saturday’s Presentation of Certificates ceremony in the International Missionary Training Hospital, Drogheda.
The ceremony marked the graduation of over 50 young nurses, two of them males, from the Hospital’s threeyear-long training programme.
Families of the nurses travelled from all parts of Ireland to witness the hand over of the certificates by Sr. Jude Walsh, M.M.M., Superior General, and Sr. Kathleen Veale M.M.M., Matron, and to hear the address of welcome given bv Sr Marie Stella Cunningham, the principal tutor in the nursing school.
SEPTEMBER 1984
It was a ceremony tinged with nostalgia as the young nurses, who nad spent so much time in each other’s company for the past three or four years prepared to go their separate ways. There was confidence and hope also as many of them prepared to travel abroad to take up foreign postings.
Some, like Miss Jane Farnan of Kells, will be taking off next week for the Himalayas and Miss Caroline Donnelly, daughter of Dundalk Bank od Ireland bank manager, Michael Donnelly, to Ethiopa. Others will go to Britain while yet others will remain her in Ireland, some in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
The plans to build a new maternity hospital in the I.M.T.H. complex was commented upon by Sr. Stella. Work, she reported, would commence in 1985 and would be completed in 1987, in time to coincide with the golden jubilee of the M.M.M.s.
Sr. Stella also spoke of the plans for a two-year trining project for midwives, the proposed Day Care Centre and Paediatnc Unit in the hospital.
Sr. Eileen Fahey of the Convent of Mercy, a former graduate of the IMTH nursing school, dwelt in her address on the addiction of alcohol and the role which the nurse has in combating it.
She recalled how her interest in this subject was Sparked off _durlnga period of training in Ardee psychiatric hospital and the work which she later did with the St. John of Gods in Stillorgan and in the United States. Today she is the Director of the Aiseiri Treatment Centre in Cahir, Co. Tipperary. The Aiseiri is a completely drug free Centre to which patients are sent after they have been detoxified.
It was Sr. Eileen who emphasisied the importance of nursing as the premier caring profession, pointing out to the young graduates that they are specialists. It was up to them to put to good use their particular skills of caring and counselling.
Dr. Colman Muldoon, replying to the guest speaker’s address on the “Widening Horizons” of the graduates, urged the young nurses to become active in their own professional organisation, the i.N.O. Through it they should try to effect changes beneficial to the profession and to patient care. They must realise the role that they could play and not leave it to the politicians to dictate policy.
During the ceremony the Dr. Godfrey Hinds Memorial was presented by Mr. Michael Shine to second year student, Miss Margaret Connor.
Later in a Eucharistic celebration in Our Lady of Lourdes Church, the chief celebrant, His Lordship, Bishop Lennon congratulated the graduates and paid tribute to them, their families, and to the work of the Medical Missionaries of Mary.
GRADUATES
Miss Bernadette Aherne, Ballineen, Co. Cork; Miss Anne Bell, Termonfeckin, Drogheda; Miss Dympna Brady, Arva, Co. Cavan; Miss Ursula Brennan, Kiltimagh_, Co. Mayo; Miss Bernadette Dalton, Trim;
Miss Caroline Donnelly, Dundalk;
Miss Eleanor Duffy, Castleblayney;
Miss Marie Egan, Rathfarnham;
Miss Carol Fanning, Dunleer; Miss Jane Farnan, Kells;
Miss Mary Hackett, Callan, Co. Kilkenny; Miss Sally Hartigan, Raheny;
Miss Noreen Hickey, Thurles;
Mrs. Fionnuala Kennedy, Dunleer;
Miss Madeline King, Kilrush, Co. Clare; Miss Joan Lynch, Dundalk;
Miss Marie Mahon, Belturbet, Co. Cavan; Miss Martina Mahony_, Kilcreest, Co. Galway; Miss Joan Moloney, Ballymahon_ Co. Longford;
Miss Aileen Muldoon, Raheny;
Miss Elizabeth McConnell, Navan;
Miss Anne McCormack, Farnagh, Lonford; Mr. Patrick McPhillips, Scotstown, Co. Monaghan;
Sister Miriam Patrick Ndibi, Enugu, Nigeria; Sister Genevieve Obi, Enugu, Nigeria; Miss Bernadette O’Brien, Shannon; Miss Phena (M. J.) O’Connore, Castlemaine, Co. Kerry;
Miss Claire Ryan, Athlone;
Miss Clair Shannon, Athlone; Miss Fion nuala Soraghan, Dundalk; Miss Victoria Williams, Ashton Place. Cork; Miss Marie Whelan, Tullow. Co. Carlow; Miss Margaret Ennis, Glasnevin; Miss Martina Gilroy, Athboy; Miss Lucelle Harrington, Athy; Miss Siobhan Loughlin, Navan; Miss Miriam Monaghan, Mullingar; Miss Patricia Morris, Castleblayney; Miss Denise Mullen, Ballaghaderren, Co. Roscommon; Miss
Barbara Murphy, Stalaban; Miss Aisling McDonnell, Blackrock, Co. Dublin; Mr. Kevin McKenna, Monaghan; Miss Marie Nevin, Nells; Miss Bridget Nolan, Kilkee, Co. Clare; Miss Kathleen Nugent, Athbov; Mrs. Aideen O’Connor, Mulhuddart, Co. Dublin; Miss Caroline O’Connor, Dublin Road, Longford; Miss Helen O’Connor, Main Street, Longford; Miss Colette O’Reilly, Nobber; Miss Deirdre Sheehan, Rathmines; Miss Josephine Sloan, Dundalk; Miss Melanie Tiernan, Trim.