Risk-taking and scars were a child’s rites of passage and still should be

In the process, they learned balance and athleticism and a solid appreciation of danger, writes Terry Prone

IF YOU have never had to attend the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital in Adelaide Rd, Dublin, you don’t know what you’re missing. It is the most beautiful building, all detail and elaboration and red brick, with a proud history, of which, until I encountered it up close and personal recently, I had no knowledge.

Even though the offices of my company overlook the car park of the Eye and Ear, I had no idea that the latter had been founded in 1896 and was an amalgamation of two earlier hospitals.