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Go to Castlebar ] [ The BB Index ] [ Disclaimer ] [Nostalgia Board ] [Main BB ] [Roots ] [NB Refresh for current version and all follow-ups] Posted by Old Stock on October 24, 2004 at 18:45:02: In Reply to: Re: hospital on the mall posted by md on October 20, 2004 at 23:27:35:
The County Infirmary, opposite the Mall, Castlebar, was a three-storey structure, tastefully designed and erected in or about 1750 by means of a grant allocated by the Irish Parliament in College Green, Dublin. Dr. M. O'Malley Knott was county surgeon for a number of years. There were 60 beds in the infirmary and the number of patients treated over a year would have been 1,000. Dr. Knott served during the closing stages of the 19th century and the opening years of the 20th century. With his daughter, Mrs. Fitzgerald, he built a Swiss-style chalet at Mountain View, later occupied by Mr. A. V. G. Thornton, State Solicitor. The house is now occupied by Ward and Ann McEllin, both solicitors. Ann is a granddaughtReer of the late A. V. G. Thornton. I think the house may be been called Maida Vale at one time. Later Dr. McKeon became county physician. The matron was a Mrs. Hardiman. Included on the staff were Mrs. Rodgers and Miss Scahill. When Mrs. Rodgers resigned she was replaced by her daughter, Nurse Alice Rodgers, who trained in London. The next county physician attached to the hospital was Dr. Anthony McBride, a native of Westport and brother of Major General John McBride, signatory of the 1916 Proclamation. Dr. McBride gained a great reputation for his dedication to the hospital and its patients. A very humble man, he is buried in Aughavale cemetery in Westport, where a clump of stones marks his grave. He was a granduncle of the poet Paul Durcan. The infirmary closed in the early 1950s and some of the wards were used by the Castlebar branch of the Irish Red Cross Society.
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