Madam - Deaglán de Bréadún writes (Opinion, February 8th) with exasperation about the ignorance of a group of secondary schoolchildren concerning Dr Noel Browne.
For the past 12 years in Trinity College Medical School we have been running a first-year medicine course in which our students follow a family with a new baby for a year. This year, 130 new medical students were invited into 65 family homes in Tallaght to follow the delights, trials and progress of our newest Irish citizens.
When we started the course I told Dr Browne and the indomitable Mrs Phyllis Browne about it, as it has such a strong "Mother and Child" theme. Trinity secured their agreement to lend his name to a prize. He stipulated that the winning student or students must receive it for an innovative contribution to the family's welfare or education, rather than for straightforward academic achievement.
We have awarded it in most years to students who have, for example, taught English to refugee families, taken a family through the loss of the father, or introduced toothbrushes and books into a family home. The University of Glasgow is considering introducing the course as a prize model for its medical students.
At a recent seminar I led, over half the group had read up about Dr Browne and were able to recount the complexities of his battle with the Catholic Church. He has an eternal appeal to the young, if they are told about him.
The only public honour he received when alive was an honorary fellowship of Trinity College and he used the initials FTCD on his notepaper. His papers are now in the possession of the library in Trinity, having generously been donated by his family. - Yours, etc,
Dr TOM O'DOWD, Professor of General Practice, Trinity College, Dublin 2.
Madam, - Deaglán de Bréadún's reminder of the achievements of Noel Browne as Minister for Health is timely. In his few years in office he opened 2,000 hospital beds - at a time when the country was poverty-stricken and his main source of income was the Hospital Sweepstake.
He was able to do this because of a passionate understanding of the plight of sick people. By contrast, our present Minister for Health sees healthcare as a business which has to be "competitive", "efficient" and privatised.
The neo-liberal agenda does not allow for passionate understanding of sick people, but an understanding of tax-breaks and investment opportunities. According to this Thatcherite ideology the ill are "consumers" who must have "choice".
Well, the Minister is wrong. Sick people just want to get better in caring surroundings. - Yours, etc,
JOHN WILLIAMS, Kilkee, Co Clare.