IRELAND
Irish Independent
Dearbhail McDonald
April 24 2017
The narrative of the Religious Sisters of Charity embarking on a naked power grab to take control of the State’s largest maternity hospital in a bid to control Irish women’s reproductive autonomy is a potent one.
Our collective reaction to the prospect of the nuns, the owners of the St Vincent’s University Hospital Group (SVHG), imposing its Catholic ethos on Irish women while refusing to pay its share of a redress scheme for institutional abuse is real and visceral. And it is entirely understandable in the wake of Church scandals such as the discovery of the remains of babies and small children in septic tanks at a former mother and babies home in Tuam.
However, I wonder if the real reason why the SVHG insisted on the National Maternity Hospital coming under its control was less to do with Catholic ethos and more to do with its toxic relationship with the HSE and its €150m debts.
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