REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE 300TH ANNIVERSARY OF ST. JAMES’S HOSPITAL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE UNVEILING OF THE SCULPTURE ‘PROTOGONOS’ TO MARK 300TH ANNIVERSARY OF ST. JAMES'S HOSPITAL
Dia dhibh a chairde and thank you for both the welcome and the invitation from Ian Carter to this celebration of three centuries of care for the sick on this
land-mark site. Now a landmark sculpture puts the imprint of another generation another century on this historic landscape. Eamonn O’Doherty’s ambitious and thoughtful work melds the ancient stirrings of curiosity about healing the human body with the future frontiers of scientific exploration opened up by contemporary DNA research. Hippocrates worship of the Greek God Asclepius finds its echo in the coiled serpent of the Rod of Asclepius. It is a familiar symbol in the world of medicine with a long historic pedigree. Familiar to us today though it was just as tantalisingly present yet impenetrable in the days of Hippocrates as the double helix of the DNA molecule. Through this monumental work we are reminded of the intellectual curiosity and the profound humanity which have characterised the determination to triumph over disease and suffering and which have inspired those who have worked here in every generation. To those who will trudge to and from this hospital carrying worries and fears about their health or the health of loved ones, this sculpture like the hospital itself speaks of a quest for answers, for solutions that is relentless.
The earliest plans for healthcare on this site, at the end of the seventeenth century, were interrupted like all of Irish history by the Williamite wars but the hospital seems to have made a more rapid return to health than the rest of the country and indeed Europe, after the battle of the Boyne for within a few years the first infirmary here was well under way and over the following three hundred years it was to keep faith and keep pace with the changing face of Ireland. It cared for foundlings, the poor and the elderly and with the advent of the Sisters of Mercy in 1880 the standard and quality of care were considerably enhanced. It was the scene of many intimate personal dramas and of some that had national significance including its occupation during the rising and the accidental killing of a member of the nursing staff. What was St. Kevin’s and an amalgam of smaller hospitals metamorphosed in the 1970s to the formal foundation of Saint James’s Hospital. The scene was set for a modern, dynamic health care facility that would be at the very heart of health care in our capital city.
The statistics are impressive in their own right and through them we get some sense of the impact this place has each day on those who need its services. Last year alone saw 22,000 admissions and over 200,000 outpatient visits to a campus that offers a world-class array of treatments, specialisms, research and services. It is of course the staff who make the work of St James’ their profession and their passion. It takes a complex and multi-skilled team from those whose work of cleaning and caring for the grounds and buildings sets the scene, the initial impressions and tells of the values and vigilance at work in the place, to the medical, scientific, technological, pastoral, social care and administrative staff whose interaction with each other and with patients, families and visitors impacts so very deeply and personally that it can leave a lasting impression - every single role, every single interaction has downstream consequences and an importance to the life and times of St. James and to the quality of healthcare available to any generation.
Hippocrates once wrote “the life so short, the craft so long to learn.” St. James holds that craft baton as a sacred trust. It carefully hands it from one generation to the next, always believing always insisting that the learning never ends, that the range of services grows as wisdom grows and that infusing it all is that same ethos of compassionate care for the human condition that brought this place into being three hundred years ago.
Those early start-up years of health care on this site seem perhaps primitive and rudimentary to us today. The same judgment no doubt awaits our time, three hundred years from now. We do not know what will be known three hundred years from now. What we do know is that the culture of curiosity that leads to discovery is embedded here as strongly as is the culture of care. They reassure us and they make us proud for no computer generates these things. They arise in the human heart and mind and that is what we celebrate today, not bricks and mortar but heartfelt, enduring human endeavour placed at the service of suffering humanity. The sculpture says it brilliantly in the way that only art can. In return we say thank you for three centuries past and for all that is to come here at St. James’. I wish the Board and the Hospital, its staff, supporters, friends and patients every success.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir!