Nurses memories of the bombing of the north strand

One of the many fascinating life stories recounted in a new book about Temple Street hospital concerns Bridget Dempsey, originally from The Downs, Mullingar.

'Temple Street Children’s Hospital – An Illustrated History’ tells the story of how Ireland’s best known paediatric centre started life as an infirmary caring for the children of the poor.

Bridget’s involvement with Temple Street began when her sister became ill with appendicitis during the 1930s, and their father needed to make a dramatic dash by motorcycle over dark and uncertain roads at 2am with his ill daughter in tow.
She later recovered and was able to return home.

Bridget picks up the story: “The recession was on that time and you couldn’t get a job. I was about 16 so my father talked to the nuns about starting me in the hospital. 'The girls are all young,’ he used to say, 'and when they grow up they’ll put them in for nursing.’ I was put on the baby ward in St Patrick’s and they had me doing the hall door as well. Sometimes I used to help in outpatients and I was down in St Bridget’s, where the tonsil cases were.”

Bridget recalls one memorable occasion when Gene Autry came to visit the hospital and tied his horse at the railings outside. He came in and played songs around the wards.

By far the most dramatic day, however, was when the North Strand was bombed in 1941. “We were in bed at about two o’clock in the morning and the plane crossed over,” Bridget remembers.

“If it had dropped the bomb five minutes before, we’d have had it because it would have fallen in the garden; Mr Hawes, the hall porter, was coming down the steps to look out into the garden; he got a bang on the back of the hand from a stone and his hand was out for a long time.

“That night, we were working in casualty – they all came in. We had to help on the wards with the beds and we looked after the families and fed them. There were a few new born babies as well.”

Available in all good bookshops nationwide, Temple Street Children’s Hospital – An Illustrated History is published by New Island Books.

It is packed with interviews with past patients, retired staff members and features a wealth of unseen photographs. It takes a unique look past the hall door to reveal how a building that once started life as a private residence has since become a world-class hospital.