Sunday, October 29, 2017

The Phoenix Hospital

It has been announced that the new children's hospital is to be called the Phoenix Children's Hospital.

Could anyone have chosen a more spectacularly nonsensical name?

Already the Phoenix Children's Hospital  in Arizona has expressed concnerns about plans to adopt a similar name for the new hospital.

Historian Diarmaid Ferriter in his  column in The Irish Times  yesterday suggested it be called after Dr Kathleen Lynn.

She served as a medical officer to the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Rising. She was also elected to the Dáil in 1923 as an anti-treaty candidate.

With Madeline ffrench-Mullem she established St Ultan's Hospital for infants in Dublin's Charlemont Street.

Everything about The Lynn Hospital is and sounds better than the Phoenix Hospital.


2 comments:

pjob said...

Doctor Kathleen Lynn would be a fitting name for the new children's hospital. In our family the story goes that my sister was very ill as an infant and there seems to be deep concern for her life. It was suggest that my mother take her to Dr Lynn which she duly did. Within days all was well again.
A year ago I was with that same sister in Cork when she became very ill with no warning. An ambulance was called, and we arrived at the Mercy Hospital where she got immediate treatment as she had a violent headache. To their surprise she had never been sick over the 70 years of her life, no hospital records existed. She recovered within a few days and is back home and in good health. Dr Kathleen Lynn would be a fitting name for the Children's Hospital.

Michael Commane said...

What a lovely story. Thank you.

And yes, to call the children's hospital after this fine woman makes great sense.

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