THOSE uniformed young men and women to be seen scurrying on to hurling and football pitches, in attendance at open-air concerts and other events, and standing by their cross-marked ambulances, all ready to offer first-aid services, are heirs to a colourful and, at times, controversial tradition.
They are members of the Order of Malta or, to give it its full title, the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, which was founded in the 11th century in Jerusalem before the First Crusade, when a monastic community was established there to minister to the needs of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Places.
This illustrated book, by a distinguished member of the order (Dame Rosita is a Commander of the Ambulance Corps) records the long history of the order in a series of statistics-laden chapters which, however, fail to capture the colour or the controversy of a fascinating organisation. An uninspiring format does not help, either.
Not long after its foundation, because of attacks on pilgrims, the order was forced to resort to arms to protect the sick, and thus became an order of knighthood (the Knights Hospitallers), the pioneers of all modern hospital, hospice and ambulance services. As a military order, its role often superseded its original purpose as a protector of the sick, and its muscular Christianity, at first exercised in the defence of the Holy Places, later developed into acquisitive actions. When the Holy Land came under the control of the Muslims in 1291, the order took over the island of Rhodes, which they held for 200 years, then Malta, where they held sway until ousted by Napoleon in 1798. For centuries, the order's navy was one of the most powerful in the Mediterranean and was largely responsible for the destruction of the Ottoman fleet at Lepantoin 1571.
Inevitably, as the need for a defence of the Holy Places diminished with a rapprochement between Islam and Christianity, the order faced a crucial problem: how to adapt an ancient religious military order to the needs of modern society.
That it has succeeded is evident from the information supplied in this book. It is clear that the order saw that its future lay in the development of its hospitaller duties. Its loss of territorial sovereignty elsewhere led to the order's restructuring in national associations, the fist of which was the Rhine-Westphalian Association founded in 1859. An Irish Association was established in 1934
but the Knights Hospitallers were in Ireland long before that, having been introduced by the Normans in the 12th century. At that time, two military orders, the Hospitallers and the Templars, were granted lands on which they built fortified preceptories and, later, hospitals and priories.
The first of these preceptories (or small communities) was at Wexford and was probably set up by William Marshall in 1172. It may have been the headquarters of the Hospitallers in Ireland for about two years before the foundation of the Grand Priory of the order at Kilmainham, on the site now occupied by the Royal Hospital. There were 17 preceptories (and possibly six more) in Ireland (incidentally, the map on page 36 showing the location of these preceptories has Ballyhack, Co Wexford, misplaced by about 50km).
Today, the order is a worldwide institution, engaged in its original role of caring for the sick, the injured and the poor. Its services range from soup kitchens to ambulance helicopters. Its members, professed religious and lay, take pride in its long history and traditions. This detailed work, so obviously a labour of love by a dedicated member, should enhance that sense of pride in a worthy institution.
