Drogheda takes to streets in f ight for hospital’s name
Locals march in bid to save ‘Lourdes’ title
MORE than 1,000 people marched through Drogheda, Co. Louth, yesterday to protest at proposals to change the name of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
Many protesters yesterday spoke of their love for Mother Mary Martin and the Medical Missionaries of Mary, who helped get the hospital built in the 1950s.
Mother Mary was hailed for her years of tireless work to raise funds for the hospital and locals have said the decision to remove the religious connection in the name flies in the face of everything she did for the town.
The hospital, which is one of the busiest in the country, was bought by the HSE from the Medical Missionaries of Mary in 1997.
Staff were last month told the name would be changed and
‘Our two boys were born there’
asked which of three other names they would prefer: Drogheda University Hospital, Drogheda Regional Hospital or Drogheda General Hospital.
The hospital is known locally as ‘The Lourdes’ but all the options proposed by management remove any mention of that name.
Drogheda mayor Frank Godfrey recently urged people to join the protest and said that there are ‘a few faceless bureaucrats in Dublin that want to remove anything Catholic from society and I can tell them that in Drogheda we remember Mother Mary and the Medical Missionaries who built our hospital’.
Mr Godfrey said the management has already removed crucifixes from the building and claimed there were recent attempts to have a large statue of the Blessed Virgin taken from the roof.
Generations of families took part in the 2km march from the centre of Drogheda to the hospital.
‘Our two boys were born there,’ said Liam and Paola Flynn who walked with their sons Daire, aged two, and four-year-old Matthew.
‘I think the HSE could use their money a lot wiser in paying the nurses better, in giving more beds to patients rather than changing the name,’ Mrs Flynn said.
‘The Church has done a lot of good in this country and with the bad they have done, it would be a pity to erase the good as well.’
Also marching was Rose Toomey who said: ‘I want it to stay as it is. I have family who worked in it for years and still go to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital for treatment.’
One man, who used a walking aid to take part in the march, said: ‘They are trying to take our name away from the hospital that we built.’ He said his family contributed to the building of the hospital ‘and my relations gave the land for the hospital when it started off and when it began and [management] are trying to wipe out all that now?’
The cost of a name change was on the mind of a number of marchers. Martin Kelly said: ‘The towels they have, the sheets, the paperwork, the letterheads, they all have “Our Lady of Lourdes” on it. That all has to be changed – it costs millions to do that – the public do not know about that.’
The march culminated with protesters handing in a letter to the general manager of the hospital.
The letter, from the ‘Save The Name’ committee says that its petition to retain the name has so far been signed by 8,020 people.
It wants to meet with hospital management and says there should be consultation with local people before any name change takes place. Chairperson of the Save the Name committee, Bob McGuffin, said the hospital was built in the 1950s with huge support, including financial support, from the people of Drogheda.
He said that local people paid weekly contributions for years towards the cost of the build.
The hospital yesterday said it had no comment to make while the HSE said the proposed name change ‘is part of plans at a national level to move hospitals to academic models, as has already happened at Letterkenny and Kerry’. The HSE also said the details of any name changes are up to individual hospital groups.