109nursesaccept certsatOurLadyof LourdesHospital
One hundred and nine nurses who qualified at Drogheda’s Our Lady of Lourdes training hospital were presented with their certificates at a special ceremony last Saturday.
These fully fledged nurses, many of them local, will scatter far and wide to hospitals all over Ireland, in Kenya and Thailand, where a few are going to help the Kampuchcan refugees.
Some of course will take up jobs at the Lourdes Hospital, where they spent three years training.
Parents, husbands, boy friends and hospital staff packed the auditorium for the presenting of the certificates, which was made by Sr. Jude Walsh, mother general of the Medical Missionaries of Mary.
And except for onlookers it was an all girls affair.
But perhaps next time round, there will be a few men, for among the current crop of nursing students at the Lourdes is the first solitary male, Michael McKenna from Monaghan. He should be prominent at the next presentation of certificates.
Among the 109 girls were Mary Anderson, Drogheda; Angela Carty, Nobber; Joan Connolly, Navan; Ingrid Gryson, Ashbourne: Siobhan Marron. Swords; Ann Martin, Ardee; Sr. Bcrnice O’Neill’, Drogheda; Roisin Dullaghan, Dundalk; Catherine Landy, Ardee; Pauline McArdle. Dundalk; Jane McNally, Castlebellingham; Sr. Bridget Canavan, Drogheda; Paula Connolly, Malahide; Irene Mulligan, Dundalk; Eimer
O’Reilly, Laytown; Nuala Raffcrty, Dundalk; Siobhan Redmond, Drogheda; Sr. Cecilia Azuh, Drogheda; Finola Coyne, Bellewstown; Mary Cunningham, Ardee; Ann Donnelly, Dundalk; Jean Duffy, Clonce; Helen Murphy. Drogheda; Anne Roberts. Navan; Mary White
Nigerian student. Sr. Maria Chidicbere Nwadiuko, was awarded the Dr. Godfrey Hinds Memorial Medal for obtaining the highest marks in theoretical and practical nursing.
Mrs. Clare Parkes, a former student of the Lourdes and guest speaker, praised the dedication and perseverence of the nursing graduates.
“To all of you I say, well done. You arc now registered nurses, committed to quality caring of people and the quality of the nursing depends on the quality of the nurse.” she reminded them.
Bishop James Lennon celebrated a special thanksgiving Mass afterwards in the auditorium.
During this the newly professed nurses recited the nurse’s pledge: “I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to uphold the dignity of human life and to practice my profession faithfully.”