Maternity hospital row: ‘I did try to warn you’ - Texts row spills over

Last Sunday, shortly after lunchtime, Peter Boylan, the eminent ex-master of the National Maternity Hospital at Holles St, picked up his phone to send a text.

The raging row over the proposed handing over of the new €300m hospital to the Catholic order of the Sisters of Charity had dominated the Sunday papers and morning radio shows.

Having flagged his concerns publicly about the proposed move to St Vincent’s Hospital, Boylan texted his sister-in-law Rhona Mahony, the current master of Holles St, and Nicholas Kearns, the deputy chairman of the hospital.