Health Care

We are conscious that care of the sick was part of the founding intention of Catherine McAuley At present some sisters are engaged across a Broad range of health care ministries, which include complementary medicine, geriatric nursing, public health nursing, primary and acute health care in our three voluntary hospitals two nursing homes and respite facility, as well as in Health Board institutions across the Province.

As in other ministries we recognise that our personnel is dwindling, while at the same time the demand for quality nursing care is increasing. Over the last number of years we have introduced more modern management structures in our hospitals and nursing homes.

Because of our focus on the most needy and vulnerable in our society, we have disengaged from our two private hospitals while at the same time being careful to pass on that service preserving the tradition of Catholic and mercy ethos when possible.

The public voluntary hospitals are now companies responsible to the State for the use of public funds and responsible to the Sisters of Mercy for maintaining the Catholic Voluntary and Mercy tradition.

The Caring Tradition: Catherine McAuley and the sick

Catherine McAuley had a special tenderness for the sick, especially the sick poor and she and the first sisters regularly visited the sick in the alleys and tenements around Baggot St and were allowed to visit the sick in St Patrick Dun's hospital which was also adjacent to the House of Mercy.

Cholera in Dublin 1832

One of Catherine McAuley's earliest experiences as a Sister of Mercy was the outbreak of cholera in her native Dublin in 1832. She had always had a deep natural sympathy and a desire to help the sick The medical tradition in her family was a strong one, both her brother and her brother in law were doctors and her benefactors William Callaghan and the Armstrongs were members of the Apothecaries Hall in Dublin.
The existing hospitals could not cope with the scale of the disaster. Accordingly she and her sisters volunteered to run the temporary hospital set up in Townsend St. They went there that very day to nurse the victims until the outbreak subsided. Some years after her death in 1841 the first major commitment of the Congregation to medical care for the poor and the people of Dublin was commenced with the founding of the Mater Hospital, Eccles St, Dublin in 1852. The Mater Hospital was opened in 1861.

Sisters to-day care for the sick in hospitals and in their homes as public health nurses. They also visit the sick in their homes and hospitals in their own immediate localities.

Mater Hospital, Dublin 1861

Voluntary Hospitals

Mater Misericordia Hospital, Eccles St, Dublin
www.mater.ie

Temple St Children's Hospital, Temple St , Dublin
www.childrenshospital.ie

National Rehabilitation Hospital ,
Rochestown Ave, Dunlaoire, Co Dublin.
www.imd.ie/hospdubl.htm

St Paul's Hospital and School for Autistic Children,
Beaumont, Dublin 9. It is associated with the
Mater Hospital.

Sisters work in Health Board Hospitals in Cashel, Thurles, Limerick, Newcastlewest, Croom, Ennis, Athy and in prison nursing.
www.hospitalsoup.com

Retirement Homes and Day Centres

We look after those who have travelled a long way along life's journey in several centres across the Province in residential centres:

Catherine McAuley House, Limerick
Beaumont Convalescent Home, Dublin 9
New Inn, Co Tipperary
St Fiacc's, Carlow
St Laserian's, Bagenalstown, Carlow
Gahan House, Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny

and in day centres in:

Cappamore, Co Limerick,
Clarecastle, Co Clare,
Newport, Co Tipperary,
Nenagh, Co Tipperary,
Mount St Vincent, Limerick.

Addiction Centres

Sr Consilio Fitzgerald has founded centres all over Ireland beginning with the centre she established in Cuan Mhuire, Athy, Co Kildare to assist those suffering from alcohol and substance abuse. From this beginning other centres sprang up:

Cuan Mhuire, Bruree, Co Limerick
Teach Mhuire, Gardiner St, Dublin
and in a number of other locations in other Provinces.

www.cuanmhuire.ie

www.kildarevec.ie/AdultEd/CuanMhuire.htm

Sisters also work in Bushy Park addiction centre Ennis.

Therapies

Individual sisters practice a variety of branches of complementary medicine and therapies.

 

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