Madam, - Hugh Staunton (August 8th) quotes very selectively from the charter of the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, incorporating the National Children's Hospital - in order, it must be assumed, to seek to undermine the hospital's unique position as Ireland's only multidenominational and pluralist paediatric hospital.
The hospital is charged by the Oireachtas, which approved the charter with all party support, with preserving a focus for Protestant participation in our health services and with preserving a Protestant ethos. However, the charter states immediately after the section quoted by Mr Staunton: "While maintaining this focus and preserving this ethos, freedom of conscience and the free profession and practice of religion by all within the establishments operated by the Hospital are equally affirmed and guaranteed. The Hospital will therefore have a multidenominational and pluralist character". (Charter 5 (J).)
Mr Staunton tells your readers that I have been "modest about the statutory religious position of Tallaght Hospital". Far from being modest, I am very proud that the Republic has developed in Tallaght a symbol of inclusiveness for the Protestant communities on this island and indeed one for how we might respect all minorities which wish to contribute to public services. The challenge in the current context of reconciling relationships in Ireland is to support institutions which can command support North and South, such as Tallaght Hospital, which treats all citizens equally, while at the same time facilitating the witness and role of all our Churches to healthcare. - Yours, etc,
Dr FERGUS O'FERRALL,
Director,
Adelaide Hospital Society,
Tallaght,
Dublin 24.