Continued
In 1977-’78 this church was re-constructed by the Southern Health Board, aided by the very generous contributions of the local people.
The Calvary on the grounds was erected by Fr. Sayers in 1954. He was curate in Listowel at that time and did most of the work himself.
The Fever Hospital was placed under the patronage of St. Joseph, and the Sisters worked there devotedly and courageously in very primitive conditions. In 1912 there was an outbreak of typhus fever in Listowel. Some of the Sisters contracted the disease but recovered. Sadly, Sr. M. Patrick Kane, having volunteered to work in the hospital during her Christmas holidays from teaching in Tralee, caught the fever and died 25 January 1912.
The Sisters continued to work in the Fever Hospital until 1948 when all fever patients were transferred to the Isolation Hospital, Killarney. The Fever Hospital was redecorated and opened as a hospital for pulmonary tuberculosis patients under the care of Sr. M. Veronica Hurley. With the decline of this disease, the hospital was changed to a Geriatric Unit.
Sr. M. Michael Danaher was Superior and Head Nurse for thirty-six years. She was succeeded by Sr. M. Charles O’Keefe in 1919 and Sr. M.Malachy Maher in 1922.
These latter years were full of drama! Many of the victims” on the run” from the Black and tans sought refuge in the hospital. Once when the hospital was surrounded, the wanted man, who was a patient, escaped from the search-party in the ward and got to the female ward, where he stood by a bed and posed as a visitor to a patient. On another occasion this same man ran for refuge to the organ gallery where Sr. M. Stanislaus Loftus was playing. The Black and Tans came to this peaceful atmosphere of uninterrupted music and left without their prey.
Later when the Civil War was at its worst the Free State Army occupied the Master of the Workhouse quarters which were then vacant. (The Sisters were advised to vacate the hospital but they bravely stayed with their patients). The Republican Army launched an attack. The Free State Soldiers went into the convent and fired from behind mattresses, on their attackers. The Sisters persuaded them to leave, but the Republican Army set fire to the Workhouse buildings before leaving the Masters Quarters. The chapel being in danger, the Sisters prevailed on them to remove part of the dining hall roof, to prevent the fire spreading to the chapel which was at the extreme end of the dining hall After the burning the inmates were removed from Listowel Workhouse.
The New Hospital known as the District Hospital commenced in 1936, completed in 1940 and officially opened by Mr. Ruttledge, the Minister for Health, on the 9th. June 1941. with Sr. M. Malachy as head Nurse. The patients were transferred from the Workhouse to the Hospital on the feast of the Sacred Heart, 21st June 1941.Gradually, the old buildings were demolished and the Workhouse is now just a memory, with the old ivy clad walls which surrounded its grounds, still standing, mute witnesses to days of suffering, poverty, and heroic work and devotion. The hospital was re-roofed in 1973.
1990 : The Sisters vacated the hospital convent which was Health Board property and they went to live in a bungalow in Greenville, Listowel. The last Sister of Mercy working there retired in 2009.
Southern Province 