Mercy Hospital Cork https://www.muh.ie/
On the 17March 1857, Feast of St.Patrick, the Mercy Hospital was opened for the reception of patients. The superior of St. Maries of the Isle, Sr. Josephine Warde, with the approval of the Bishop of Cork, Dr. Delany, had been for some time previous receiving contributions towards the founding of a hospital. She was assisted by the Administrator of the Parish of Ss. Peter and Paul, Archdeacon, John James Murphy, who contributed largely towards it out of his own private resources. He was indefatigable in collecting funds for its establishment. His great influence with the citizens enabled him to accomplish this to a large extent.
He obtained the lease of The Mansion House in 1856 from the Vincentian Priests who were vacating it. This building had formerly been the Mayor’s residence (from 1767-1843) and was afterwards occupied as a school by the Vincentian Fathers (1843-1856) before their removal to their new House of Retreat adjoining the Church of St. Vincent, Sunday’s Well.
At a cost of £3,793 the school was converted into a hospital. A yearly rent was paid to the Corporation until 1927 when the Sisters of Mercy finally bought the building from the Corporation. The plan was not only to nurse the poor in the spacious and commodious wards but also to care for wealthier patient. A few private rooms were set apart for those who might be stricken down by illness while at a distance from their homes, prevented by circumstances from obtaining the medical aid they required and the far more important might need spiritual helps for securing the inestimable grace of a happy death. The Sisters planned also, sometime in the future, to set up a training school for nurses. They were pragmatic in their approach publishing their plans for the Hospital in the Cork Examiner in the week previous to the official opening and respectfully solicited either a present donation to meet immediate expenses, or a yearly subscription to enable them to sustain the Hospital. A list of the contributions that had been already received was published in the newspaper. On the opening day, 17th March, eight patients were registered. Beds had been prepared for forty.
Four Sisters were appointed to work in the Hospital. Sister Mary de Pazzi Barry, Superintending Sister, Sister Sr. Mary de Sales Lane; Sister Mary Rose Doherty , Sister Mary Agnes Wall Sr. Mary Agnes Wall.
As it turned out two of the Sisters were destined to have a very short stay in the Hospital. On the 28 May there was an election in St. Maries of the Isle and Sr. M.dePazzi was elected superior of the community. As a result her time in the Mercy Hospital came to an abrupt end after a mere two months.
Sr. M. Rose Doherty was from Ballydruid, Co. Tipperary. She was the first postulant to enter the newly built convent of St. Maries of the Isle in December 1852. Sadly, she fell ill and died on the following 01 October 1857. Her stay was a mere six months in the Mercy Hospital.
As far as we know Sr. M. de Sales Lane worked all of her life in the Mercy Hospital. She died 25 August 1890.
Sr. M. Agnes Wall too worked all her life in the Mercy Hospital. She died 21 February 1900 in St. Maries of the Isle. From a report in the Cork Examiner 10 April 1857 we learn that, “Four of the good Sisters of Mercy, whose noblest functions are discharged by the bedside of the sick, attend in the building at night, while two or more of the Sisters come daily to visit the patients, from the Convent of St. Maries of the Isle.”
From its opening day we believe that the Sisters lived in part of the Hospital., though it is thought that a small house was purchased for them for their private use by a Mr. J. O’Brien It was probably one of the houses on Prospect Row but no evidence was found to prove that the Sisters actually moved into it or not.
The first two doctors in Mercy Hospital
Dr. Denis Charles O’Connor, Professor of Medicine in Queen’s College, Cork was appointed physician. He was born 1808, studied in TCD and Royal College of Surgeons and in Paris where he learned the use of the stethoscope under the French doctor Laennec. He specialised in treating chest infections. On returning to Ireland he was appointed physician to Cork Workhouse as well as Professor of Medicine in Queen’s College, Cork. He tended the poor in the workhouse with great compassion and dedication. He was a member of the society of St. Vincent DePaul. It was a fortunate day for the Mercy Hospital when he undertook to work in the Mercy Hospital. He died 26 November 1888.Epitaph on his grave: “He Loved the Poor.”
Dr. Denis Bullen Professor of Surgery in Queen’s College, Cork from 1849 to 1862 was an eminent and skilful surgeon. He was a native of Cork city. He also worked in the South Infirmary. He took care of the surgical cases.
We know from the Annals of St. Maries of the Isle that other physicians and surgeons gave their services gratis, “and a regular medical staff being formed the Institution was completely organised and put into perfect working order.” (Annals of St. Maries of the Isle. 17 March 1857.
The first weeks in the Mercy Hospital 1857
From an article in the Cork Examiner 10 April 1857 we learn some more details of the first weeks of the Mercy Hospital. The writer of the article was invited to visit the Hospital on the 6th April.
He reported that the number of patients had risen to thirty-four. He described in detail the ailments of the patients and also mentions that, “all with a single exception, the patients were of the humble in life and the very persons of all others to whose relief would be of the greatest advantage, on account of their families, even more than on their own.”
He mentions that there was one paying patient there: “The single exception, was a gentleman of respectable family, who entered as a paying patient, and who was gratified to say, has soon experienced under the treatment of the able physicians and under the care of the Sisters, the utmost relief- in fact that when entering a fortnight since he was unable to lift hand or foot, he was yesterday in a condition to be out of hospital perfectly cured.”
He was loud in his praise of the condition of the Hospital: ”The most perfect cleanliness and neatness reign throughout the building, which has a cheerful air, a matter of itself of no little consequence in promoting recovery”
Finally, he encouraged the people to support the Hospital with funding, reminding the wealthy to remember it in their wills!
“We have but one word more to say, and that is to those who have the disposition to serve this noble institution, though perhaps not large means to gratify their inclination in its behalf. To them we say if you cannot give a large donation, at least determine on giving an annual subscription, be it little or much. It is not by the first effort, but by continued support that such an institution can be maintained. A steady and preserving support is what is most in need of, and to this it has a right.
We anticipate that ere long it will be one of the very first of the charitable institutions which the wealthy will remember when on the eve of that great change which every Christian must contemplate with aw, and that it will one day derive its chief support from legacies and bequests. But until that day comes, the duty of the local public is clear and manifest- and that is, to support it in efficiency and usefulness, for the sake of the poor, if not for the advantage of the community.”
Another list of subscriptions was published for the end of March and for the month April. Down through the years various committees and boards were formed to support the hospital which included clergy, doctors, staff, important dignitaries and friends.
The Bishop of Cork was President of the Hospital.
The Mercy Home 1896 In 1896 a house on Thomas Street which was formerly occupied by the Misses Dwyer and attached to the Mansion House was converted into The Mercy Home. It was for patients who might wish to employ their own physicians or surgeons. The proceeds of the home were to be used to help the funding of the General Hospital. In 1906 the patients in the Home numbered 172. A still greater number would have availed of it if it had more accommodation. The building was pronounced a fire hazard in the early 1960s. A new private wing replacing the Mercy Home was included in the new block which was opened in 1965. Down through the years private patients have been accommodated in the hospital and it is still a valuable source of income. Sr. Albeus Fogarty was the founder of the Home.
The Training School 1911
On the 30th September 1911 the Hospital was recognised under the Local Government Board as a Training School for Nursing Sisters. The motion was sanctioned by the Senate of the Universities of Cork and Dublin at the recommendation of John Windle, President of the Cork College. The training of Sisters commenced 23 January 1912. In 1922 the first ‘Secular Probationers’ began their training in the school. It received recognition from the General Nursing Council of Ireland on 24 August 1923. Apart from Mercy Sisters, Sisters from many other congregations received their training there. Sr. Claver O’Neill was the first Nursing Tutor. She was responsible for the school for many years. Sr. Raymond O’Hea Cussen was Matron when the Nursing School opened and for many years to come.
In 1921 the old Salvation Army Hall and some houses beside it were acquired as nurses’ quarters. In 1957, centenary year, it was replaced by a new nurses home which was included in a new wing.
In 1928 St. John’s Hospital Limerick and St. John of God Hospital Wexford were affiliated to the Mercy Hospital Training School. Over the years the facilities and training developed in accordance official regulations in relation to the training of nurses. In 1979 the school was re-launched as the Catherine McAuley School of Nursing. In 2001 the course was upgraded to University Degree Level. Students also attended lectures in Brookfield Department of Nursing in UCC. In 2007 in the 150th anniversary of the Mercy Hospital the building of the new centre of Nurse Education on Henry Street near the main hospital complex began.
The War Years
During the First World War wounded soldiers were nursed in the Mercy Hospital and in other hospitals in Cork. On the 24th April 1917 Sr. Raymond O’Hea Cussen, Mercy Hospital and Sr. Albeus Fogarty, South Infirmary were invited to Buckingham Palace to receive the Royal Red Cross from King George V. They declined the invitation. However, on the 24 December 1922 they received the decoration. The Annalist of St. Maries of Isle made the following recording in 24 December 1922;
“Dec. 24th 1922: Mother M. Albeus and Sr. M. Raymond received the A.R.R.C. decoration from His Royal Highness King George of England this morning in recognition of the services rendered to the soldiers at the South Infirmary and Mercy Hospital, after the post European War – they were respectively Matrons of those Hospitals. Both has got an invitation, first class expenses to be paid – to come to London and received the decoration personally from the King, which they declined as it was considered more befitting to their Religious State that they should be ‘in absentia’ on that occasion”
Hunger Strike (August-November 1920) Four Sisters from the Mercy Hospital attended the hunger striking prisoners in the City Gaol- two by day and two by night. The prisoners were on hunger strike since 11August until 12 November 1920. Of eleven hunger strickers there was one casualty, Joseph Murphy. Dr. Battiscombe, Home Office appointee to the gaol attributed the survival of the prisoners to the sisters, who “merely treated them from the nursing point of view. I can only say that had it not been for the treatment they received at the hands of the nuns, all of them would be dead.” Some of the prisoners spent time in the Mercy Hospital on their release. Every effort was made to nurse them back to health.
Purchase of Mansion House 1927
In 1927 The Mansion House was finally bought from Cork Corporation and its share holders by the Sisters of Mercy St. Maries of the Isle on one condition: “It was to be used as a hospital or for conventual purposes. If it were proposed at any time to use it for other purposes the property should revert back to the city.”
Expansions
It is almost impossible to list all the refurbishment, repairs and expansions that have taken place over the years. Among the most significant are the following which were made possible through the great foresight and ingenuity shown down through the years to the present day in buying up property for the expansion of the Hospital.
1957 Nurses Home and other departments.
On 27th November 1957 the centenary year, a new extension was officially opened at a cost of £120,000. The Irish Sweepstake Trust Fund contributed £100,000 to the project. The cost of furnishing and equipment as well as the debt of £20,000 had to be funded by the community and generous benefactors. The new wing consisted of a new Nurses Home. It also included a new ophthalmic, ear, nose and throat unit, as well as casualty several ancillary rooms and offices.
1966 Operating suites, chapel, main kitchen and other departments.
In 1966 other extensions and refurbishments were made. In January the new main kitchen in the hospital was opened and extra equipment installed. In July the new four floor wing which included the chapel, operating suites, pathology department and extra wards were opened including a new private wing to replace the Mercy Home.
1980 Leukaemia Unit
Prior to 1980 a special fund-raising committee was established to equip a special sterile leukaemia unit.In 1980 the Irish Cancer Society provided €30,000 towards the establishment of a Leukaemia Unit for the treatment of children with leukaemia. The new unit was fully operational by April 1982. Since 2003 it is linked with Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children Crumlin where children are assessed. Now they can return to the Mercy Leukaemia Unit to continue their treatment nearer home.
2002 Inpatient Medical Oncology Unit
It was the first inpatient oncology unit to be opened in Cork enabling short stay and daycare cancer patients to receive chemotherapy.
1998 Lee View Block
The Lee View Block on the Grenville Place site opened in 1998 on five levels was built to the highest modern standards. When it opened it had a full suite of Laboratories, a Clinical Pharmacology Department and a Blood Bank, two public surgical wards and two public medical wards of 32 beds each and a fifty Psychiatric Unit. It introduced the millennium, another span of life for the Hospital would begin.
2003 Refurbishment of Mansion House
A major refurbishment began in 2003 subject to preservation orders and with the involvement of the historical building specialists of the City Council. The chandelier was donated by the Sisters of Mercy. They also financed the refurbishment of the Board Room on the Ground Floor.
Change of Name: 2003
In 2003 the hospital was officially recognised for its research, and the major developments which took place over the years by granting it university status. The president of UCC and other dignitaries gathered for the official launch of the Hospital’s University status on the 31 March 2003. Professor Aidan Moran UCC was appointed to the Board of Governors by the Provincial Leader of the Sisters of Mercy. The Minister for Health and Children, Mr. Michael Martin, announced the title: Mercy University Hospital Ltd.
(As Ihave very little information or understanding on management structures I have very little on this aspect of the hospital, before or after 2001 Sr. Dora.)
** New Management Structures
In 2001 The Hospital was reconstituted as a Company Limited by Guarantee and Board becoming a non-Executive Board. In addition a new Executive Management Board was established comprising of three nominees of the Consultant Medical Staff, the Director of Nursing, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and chaired by a Chief Executive Officer was established. Sr. Laurentia Roche was appointed as Director of Nursing, a post she held until 2003 when she announced her intention to retire after more than fifty years in service of the Hospital. It marked the end of an era as there was no Sister available to replace Sr. Laurentia. On 23 April 2004 and the first lay Director of Nursing was officially appointed, Ms Mary Dunnion.
2016 Mercy Care South On 23 September 2016 the process to set up a church body to replace the Sisters of Mercy as trustees of Mercy University Hospital and Foundation was completed. The new structure called Mercy Care South is designed to sustain our Mercy values and ethos.
Sources:
Mansion of Mercy. A History of Mercy Hospital by Sr. Emmanuel Browne 1988.
Mercy in Cork 1837-1987 Sr. Angela Bolster 1987
Touching the Lives of the Poor by James W. Corbett and Siobhan O’Mahony. 2008
The Cork Examiner 1857
The Annals of St. Maries of the Isle.
Southern Province 