Orwellian language enters the room

THE Orwellian use of language is everywhere and yet never ceases to amaze.

So I was more than surprised to read (Irish Examiner, August 15) that in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, “the majority of patients’ rooms do not have toilet facilities.”

Funny, but I didn’t think that rooms with toilets en suite were a feature of even the standard Irish hospital.

I suspect what your reporter was referring to were not rooms as such, but cells.

I know that the use of the word ‘cell’ to refer not to something decidedly microscopic, but to a place of detention, might not rest easy with the medical mind.

While intended more to expiate than to explain, Mary Harney’s comparison, some time ago, of these same enclosures with Nelson Mandela’s prison cell would appear to prove my point.

John Murphy

The Leap

Churchtown

Mallow

Co Cork