Madam, - There could have been no greater insult offered to the memory of Dr Noel Browne than the announcement on January 20th that the name of the James Connolly Memorial Hospital is to be downgraded to just Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, on the very occasion of opening a new Noel Browne wing at that same hospital.
On May 5th, 1996 a letter from the late Dr Browne was published in these columns pointing out that the new statue to Connolly opposite Liberty Hall was not "the first memorial in Dublin" and how he himself had gone to considerable pains in attempting to honour Connolly's wish that the Republic would "cherish equally all the children of the nation".
More specifically, he informed your readers: "Nearly 50 years ago, as Minister for Health, we completely replaced the decrepit hospital bed stock in the country, later adjudged by an international jury to be "with Sweden's, the finest hospitals in the world. . .Probably the most magnificent of all these hospitals, at my request, was named by the Dublin Health Authority, for Connolly, 'The James Connolly Memorial Hospital' in Abbotstown".
There can be no doubting Dr Browne's wishes as to how the principles of James Connolly should continue to be commemorated. And the only decent thing to do in the interim is to cover over the new wing's Noel Browne plaque until such time as those wishes are once again honoured by giving back to the James Connolly Memorial Hospital that selfsame name Browne himself had gone out of his way to give it. - Yours, etc.,
MANUS O'RIORDAN, Head of Research, SIPTU, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1.