Caring for the Nation tells the story of the
country's best known and perhaps its most highly
regarded hospital, Dublin's Mater Hospital. For 150
years, the Mater has been at the centre of city life,
from its beginnings helping the poor of Dublin during
the 1800s, when only the wealthy could afford to gain
access to medical care, through the dark years of the
Civil War and the Emergency, through the rapid medical
developments that took place during and after the second
world war. These include the development of antibiotics,
which meant that diseases such as TB, which had
traumatised the country, could at last be cured, the
growth of x-ray as a diagnostic tool, and the rapid
progress in cardiac care, including the country's first
heart transplant, carried out by Maurice Neligan and
Freddie Wood in September 1985. Founded by the Sisters
of Mercy in 1861, the Mater was the first hospital to
open its doors 24 hours a day, at the time, the only
refuge open to those affected by the smallpox and
cholera epidemics that raged through the overcrowded
tenements. It was the first hospital to care for
outpatients, and was at the scene of many of the most
dramatic and traumatic incidents to grip the city, such
as the attempted rescue of Sean MacStiofain from the
hospital while on hunger strike, the Dublin bombings of
1972/73, and the Stardust tragedy in 1981. Written by
Sister Eugene Nolan, the hospital archivist, who nursed
there for many years, Caring for the Nation is the
definitive history of this Dublin institution, and a
fascinating insight into the history and health of the
city itself.
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