Hospital row between in-laws: ‘Final whistle hasn’t blown yet’
FORMER National Maternity Hospital master Dr Peter Boylan has likened his relationship with his sister-inlaw, also former master Dr Rhona Mahony, to being on an opposing sporting side.
Speaking yesterday on the Marian Finucane Show on
RTÉ Radio 1 about their argument over building the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) at St
Vincent’s Hospital, Dr Boylan said: ‘If you’re playing in a match or a race, you’re not exactly best friends during the competition but when the final whistle goes and the match is over you shake hands and you get on with your lives.’
He added: ‘The final whistle hasn’t blown yet.’
When Dr Boylan was told Dr Mahony thought that the deal to build the hospital without interference from the nuns meant the whistle had blown, he said: ‘She’s wrong because we have now an admission from the sisters that they need permission from theVatican in order to [secularise the property for the hospital].’
Both former masters of the Holles St hospital have been in a public and lengthy dispute over the move of the NMH to St Vincent’s Hospital which is owned by the Sisters of Charity. Dr Boylan, who is married to Dr Mahony’s sister, has said that it would be inappropriate for the State to invest the money in a new hospital that would have strong links to the Catholic Church.
Dr Boylan called for the development of the new hospital to be paused until the board of St Vincent’s Hospital, on which Dr Mahony sits, and the Sisters of Charity produce ‘credible documentary evidence’ that they have permission from the Vatican to relinquish ownership of the land. The Sisters of Charity told RTÉ they are ‘confident that the smooth legal transfer’ of their shares in St Vincent’s Healthcare Group is ‘imminent’. They said the Archbishop of Dublin has approved and recommended their decision to the Vatican.