From top: a National Maternity Hospital ownership protest last Saturday outside Leinster House; Dr Peter Boylan, former Master of the National Maternity Hospital
This morning.
Via Irish Times Letters:
I read with attention the letter signed by 42 of the current consultant staff at the National Maternity Hospital. One sentence that jumped out was that “all care within Irish law is currently being provided at Holles Street and will be provided at the new hospital”.
No one doubts the first part of the sentence, but it is the uncertainty about the second part which is a key factor in the current controversy.
My colleagues’ fears about misinformation are well-founded.
We are being asked to believe that the Religious Sisters of Charity’s successor company, St Vincent’s Holdings, is secular, while the Letter of Grant from the Vatican directed the Sisters explicitly to observe specified canon laws in setting up the company, and the constitution of that company retains the core values of the order. The directors are “obliged to hold the values and vision” of the order’s founder including that “the sanctity of life belongs to all persons from conception to their natural end”.
The extraordinary claims last week that abortions under the terms of the 2018 Act are performed at St Vincent’s Hospital must be verified. Under the terms of the Act, all abortions must be notified to the Minister for Health within 28 days, with information that includes the grounds for each abortion.
The national report for 2020 is due to be published by June 30th. The Minister must now confirm exactly how many abortions took place at St Vincent’s between January 1st, 2019 and May 31st, 2021 and under which grounds.
I do not believe that Archbishops Eamon Martin and Dermot Farrell can continue to remain silent about such serious claims, given the strict prohibition on abortion in every Catholic hospital around the world, except apparently St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin 4.
The NMH must shoulder a large part of the responsibility for the delays to the project.
First, the decision by the board to cede ownership of the hospital to the Sisters of Charity in 2016 caused public and political furore when it emerged in 2017, and led to the Sisters announcing their intention to transfer their shareholding in St Vincent’s Healthcare Group.
Second, after repeated denials by the NMH that Vatican permission was required, it took until March 2020 before permission was in fact conditionally granted.
Third is the failure by the board of the NMH to submit an acceptable business case to Government. The first iteration appears to have been rejected by the Department of Public Reform and Expenditure in December 2020. My understanding is that a revised business case has yet to be submitted.
Following last week’s Social Democrats’ motion on the new hospital, which the Government parties did not oppose, there is now all-party political consensus that the new hospital will be fully State owned and built on State land.
A rally outside Leinster House last Saturday saw a broad range of civil society organisations oppose the current plan and call for full State ownership, including the National Women’s Council of Ireland.
The issue will at some point come before Cabinet, though much work remains to be done, not least the “double-checking” of the legal advice the Government has received to date, and the resubmission of Holles Street’s business case.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that ownership of the land is a red line for the Government and that there is “a risk” the project will not go ahead at Elm Park if the State does not own the land. In a series of thoughtful interventions Taoiseach Micheál Martin has noted that “he still has concerns about governance arrangements and that there could be no semblance or even perception of religious influence”.
Beyond the row about one hospital, the Taoiseach noted in the Dáil last week that “when the State is investing, the State should own”. Finally, I am at a loss to understand why my colleagues are resistant to State ownership. Surely that would give them the hospital they need and cast iron guarantees of medical and operational independence.
Dr Peter Boylan,
Dublin 6.
Yesterday: Hospital Pass
The Sisters of “Charity” ran a slave ring and allowed children in their care to be sexually abused while they indulged in physical and emotional abuse Their avarice and cruelty took precidence over care and humanity and there’s no reason to believe the prevailing attitudes in the order have changed. They’re liars and abusers.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/20/sisters-of-charity-abuse-maternity-hospital-irish-state
my Mother was very young and didn’t know Dublin very well when she had her first baby, the nuns ” nursing” her gave her dogs abuse, left her in tears most days, you can be sure she went to the Rotunda for the next lot as she knew it followed a less let’s say catholic ethos, 42 years later that heavily influenced my decision to go to the Rotunda too.
That’s horrible. Anyone after a birth is physically and emotionally vulnerable, but especially with your first because it’s all a learning experience. A little bit of kindness and empathy costs nothing and these women are supposed to be following the teachings of Christ – “love one another…” and all that.
The Vatican had to give permission.
The site is leasehold, not” Gifted ”
The site” and all that is built thereon “will revert to the Catholic Church.
The Government will, in the meantime, protect the assets for the Catholic Church.
Does Canon law supercede Irish Law.?
Are the Government going to defend Irish Citizens rights in Court, against the Church to ensure they receive their Human rights, and Constitutional Rights under the Irish Constitution.?
Currently there are 796 little babies discarded in a SEPTIC TANK in TUAM still waiting for a proper resting place.
Thousands of babies missing presumed dead in mass graves all over Ireland.
Human Rights Abuse of women and babies for decades by the Catholic Church.
No one is, or has, protected those little souls or their Human Rights. Discarded. Just covered over again in 2017,
Is this the legacy we want to leave to our children, grandchildren and future generations of Irish Citizens.?
The next generation Mother and baby institutions scandal.
Keep the Catholic Church out of future maternity care for our children, grandchildren and future generations of Irish Citizens
That’s a blinder of a comment J.
So very well said.
they are actually borrowed words from a friend but I do agree well said :)
That’s it, I didn’t think it was that great myself to be honest, it didn’t sound like you ;)
I’d say you were left alone a lot as a child. Adult too, by the looks of it.
Poor old Papi, most of his utterings sound like they come from a lonely room…
+666
+6666? As Prof Boylan points out the 2020 figures are out tomorrow….surely decreased due to COVID, thankfully.
In fairness, Boylan makes very good points there, especially on the wider context around how Rome, and by extension, the Archbishop of Dublin have a role to play here.
This ends in one of two ways, a brand new site, or the Sisters sell the land and work out these difficulties about the integrity of the site themselves – I’m sure it can be done.
Nuns and integrity in the same sentence…
Hahahahahahahaa
Agree so much with this. Very well said.
This hospital should be called after Dr Peter Boylan, assuming it ever gets built.
+ 1 He has been the solitary voice of reason and sanity on this for some time now.