Exit of Sisters of Charity from St Vincent’s a victory for people power

By Paul Cullen
Irish Times
May 30, 2017

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/exit-of-sisters-of-charity-from-st-vincent-s-a-victory-for-people-power-1.3100779

The Parents for Choice march on May 7th in Dublin against religious ownership of the planned new national maternity hospital. Photo by Nick Bradshaw

Former master of the National Maternity Hospital Dr Peter Boylan spoke out against the interests of his alma mater. Photo by Brenda Fitzsimons

National Maternity Hospital chief operations officer Kay Connolly, Minister for Health Simon Harris and NMH master Rhona Mahony with a model of the planned new national maternity hospital. Photo by Cyril Byrne

The announcement by the Sisters of Charity that they are ending their involvement with St Vincent’s Hospital at Elm Park, Dublin, after 183 years is a major turning point in the history of religious involvement in Irish healthcare.

It also represents a huge victory for “people power”, much of it expressed online after controversy erupted last month over the fact that the nuns would, through their ownership of St Vincent’s, also take control of the new national maternity hospital to be built on the same campus.

The “people” who made the running on the issue were unhappy at the extent of religious involvement in healthcare, and incensed at the notion that this involvement might be increased further though the “gifting” of ownership of the maternity hospital to the Sisters of Charity.

In Dr Peter Boylan, former master of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH), this viewpoint found an unlikely, yet articulate and determined, hero. Now in retirement, Dr Boylan spoke out against the interests of his alma mater, which had already signed up to the deal mediated last November that would give the nuns ultimate ownership of the site.

For his efforts, he was effectively forced to resign from the board of Holles Street. In the court of public opinion, however, he emerged as a clear victor in the debate. Repeatedly, he asked why the State was gifting a €300 million project to a religious order, a question that went went unanswered.

Guarantees

It is true, as the NMH tried to point out, that questions of ownership would have little sway on the vast majority of work carried out in the new facility. Last November’s agreement also contained guarantees of clinical independence for the maternity hospital, though a closer examination of the document unpicked these to some extent.