Sir, - Is there any acknowledgement or recognition of Noel Browne's work of building and of establishing hospitals in his fight against tuberculosis in Ireland?
I remember in the late 1940s and early 1950s when this took place and I met a civil servant of his department who spoke of a great sense of purpose that infused his departmental colleagues when this work was in progress.
In two hospitals I had occasion to visit in recent years, which Noel had mentioned in his book Against The Tide, there is no reference to him anywhere.
In St Vincent's Hospital, a large painting of Archbishop McQuaid appears in the main hall, and in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, a statue of Dr McQuaid appears with a history paragraph which contains no reference to Noel Browne. It would dishonour the Irish people if acknowledgement of Noel Browne's work does not appear prominently in at least some of the hospitals with which his name was associated in those early years. - Yours, etc.,
Billy Cotter, Templeogue, Dublin 14.