A health service to make Connolly proud

ON Sunday, February 26, 1961, an emergency requiring an amputation arose in the Cottage Hospital at Knightstown, Valentia Island.

The weather was foul and the Atlantic seas were angry. The patient could not be moved.

An entire surgical team was dispatched from Tralee hospital and was collected by Valentia lifeboat at Caherciveen Pier.

The surgery was successfully completed on the table upon which James Connolly is said to have been treated and which had been bought second- hand by the Valentia hospital in the 1920s.

We returned the surgical team to Caherciveen pier and brought home some islanders who were weather-bound there. That was the health service available over 44 years ago. Of recent events in Monaghan one can but say the mind boggles.

Dick Robinson

5 Corrovorrin Ave

Ennis

Co Clare.