The development of health services both locally and
nationally, can best be traced by looking at the modern development of
hospitals in Limerick. The modern Irish
hospital building is perhaps the most representative of the contemporary styles
of architecture in the twentieth century, along with the associated
philosophical and psychological issues that dictate how this building should be
designed and used. The modern hospital, as a building, can be described as a gesmtkunstwerk, all the aspects of
which- the function, the technology and the aesthetics- aim to promote the
well-being and recuperation of the patients.
Rapidly changing innovations in acute medical care,
out-patient care and hospital machinery instruct the design considerations.
Emerging theories demanded that the modern hospital not only had to be a high
performance, functioning institution treating the human body but it had to
be an environment conducive to rest and holistic treatment.
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| Irish Hospital Sweepstake ticket (1940) from National Archives, Irish Sweepstakes file. |
From the late nineteenth and until 1947, the cost of the
public health services was borne almost entirely by local authorities who
derived their funding from local ratepayers.[1]
The government was not prepared to come
to the aid of the hospitals by increasing the level of parliamentary grants
last fixed in the 1850s.[2]
This most notable field of architectural activity during the early years of
Irish Independence was stimulated by the establishing of the Hospital
Sweepstakes in 1930, originally intended to raise funds for some voluntary
hospitals in Dublin, but soon expanding to become the prime source of finance
for a comprehensive hospital-building campaign throughout the state. Announcing
the commencement of this campaign, the then Minister for Local Government and
Public Health, Seán T. O’Kelly praised the work of Alvar Aalto stating that he
hoped similar talent would emerge in Ireland. Even the Hospital Sweepstakes
building (Robinson Keefe, 1937) could itself be seen as an analogy for this
drive as it too was a work of modernism with a long low front elevation with a
glazed tower at one end.
 |
| Irish Sweepstakes Building, Ballsbridge Image from flickriver.com/photos/88051129@N00/tags |
Prior to the advent of the Sweepstakes no public hospital
building of any significance had been undertaken since 1904.[3]
Throughout the thirties Ireland became internationally known for its
sweepstakes and received world press coverage, both good and bad.[4] It was illegal in the United States, Canada
and the United Kingdom though the majority if tickets continued to be sold
there.[5]
Vincent Kelly, as architect member of
the Committee of Reference set up by the Free State government in 1933 to
advise on the allocation of the Hospital Sweepstakes funds undertook an
extensive tour to make a detailed study of modern developments in the design,
equipment and administration of hospitals in various countries all over Europe
including France, Switzerland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Belgium and Holland.
He inspected over sixty hospitals during a period of almost three months. On
his return, Kelly not only contributed his findings to official published
reports, and some lectures and articles (AAI lecture ‘A tour of Continental
Hospitals’ 20 February 1934[6]),
but also given responsibility for several hospitals commissions himself. These included Nenagh General Hospital, Co.
Tipperary (1933-36), Naas Fever Hospital, Co. Kildare (1933-39), the County
Hospital at Cashel, Co. Tipperary (1933-37), all exhibiting the flat-roofed and
white-walled cubic forms of modern
architecture, finished with sun balconies and projecting concrete canopies.[7]
Other hospitals embodying the spirit of progress were Michael Scott and Norman
Good’s Port Laoise Hospital (1933-40), and T.J. Cullen’s Galway Central
Hospital (1949-55). They were symbols of Ireland’s puritanical vision for
society imbued with an anti-materialistic philosophy. If Ireland had to make do
without, Fianna Fáil wanted the Irish people to know that this was not only a
current necessity but an investment for ‘making the people sober, moderate, and
masculine and thereby paving the way for industrial advancement and economic
reform.’[8]
[1] Pádraig
O’Morain, The health of the nation; the
Irish healthcare system 1957-2007 (Dublin, 2007), p.134.
[2]
Ruth Barrington, Health medicine & politics in Ireland 1900-1970, (Dublin,
1987), p.109.
[3]
Thomas Murphy, ‘Ireland’s Hospitals’, Medical
Care, 2:2 (1964), p.126.
[4]
New York Journal ‘American’ on 25 March 1956 reported ‘the Irish Sweepstake is
not as clean a sweep as they would have you believe. They manipulate the
tickets so as to throw the prizes in any direction they wish.’
[5]
Ibid, p.138.
[6] 21
Feb 1934, Irish Times
[7]
Frederick O’Dwyer, Irish Hospital
Architecture; a pictorial history (Dublin, 1997), p.18.
[8]
D.P. Moron, The Philosophy of Irish
Ireland, reprint 2006 (Dublin, 1905), p.45.
[9]
No.4/1945 Irish Statute Book. Office of the Attorney General.
[10]
Joseph Robbins (ed.), Reflections on
Health; commemorating fifty years of the Department of Health 1947-1997
(Dublin, 1997), p.5
[11]
Ibid, p.21
Further reading
Dr Marie Coleman, The Irish Sweep, a History of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake 1930-87, (UCD Press, 2009) ucdpress.ie/display.asp?isbn=9781906359416
For more photos of the Irish Sweeps you can find them at Irish Photo Archive
Further reading
Dr Marie Coleman, The Irish Sweep, a History of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake 1930-87, (UCD Press, 2009) ucdpress.ie/display.asp?isbn=9781906359416
For more photos of the Irish Sweeps you can find them at Irish Photo Archive
