BY JOHN FITZGERALD
(Part Two)
(Recalling the doctors of a very different era who served the people of Callan and district…Part One can be read on the Observer website…)
Born in Callan, Dr Richard Ryan lived in the shadow of the Augustinian Abbey in Mill Street. He wed Michael Heron’s daughter (Charlotte Heron’s aunt) and was appointed to his position about 1850.
He was also a doctor to the hospital. Dr. Ryan was well known and loved for his wise cracks and seemingly endless repertoire of jokes.
No matter what ailment a patient complained of, he would laugh heartily and make the wittiest remarks: He told one man he suspected was a bit of a hypochondriac: “Don’t worry, me lad, if I can’t cure you and you drop off, you’ll go straight to Heaven, which as you and I both know, is a lovely place.
“If I can’t relieve your troubling pains and aches, sure maybe I can offer you the joys of the next life?”
He always had soothing words of comfort for the terminally ill, and patients appreciated his tactful way of breaking bad news to them.
He sat them down, looked them straight in the eyes, and never failed to make even the most direful diagnosis or medical opinion quite palatable to them. He was something of a “spin doctor” as well as a medical one. He added “silver linings” to the black clouds of sadness, anguish, and despondency.
Dr. Ryan passed to his own Eternal Reward in 1893 and his grave is in Kilbride cemetery.
He had two children, Jack and May. Jack boasted that his daughter- Dr. Ryan’s granddaughter – had the “signal honour” of having married a Dr. Drumm of County Meath, who achieved fame as inventor of the Drumm Battery Train. Old Dr. Ryan would probably have some apt witticism to offer regarding that celebrated invention.
Dr. J. P. Marnell came to Callan from Mullinahone and replaced Dr. Ryan as doctor to the hospital in 1894, leaving this post in 1900 when he was appointed dispensary doctor in Kilmoganny.
As a child, he had always wanted to be a doctor, telling his parents of dreams he had in which he sliced people open and banished all their ailments with the help of God and medical ingenuity.
At the age of ten, he was supposed to have cured the family cat of a rare condition that the local vet thought incurable. He never explained how the “miracle cure” was applied, but the cat allegedly lived to the remarkable age of eighteen years, a fair achievement for a member of the feline species.
He married an English woman and had two children. His daughter Winnie married a Paddy Walsh of Cooliaghmore.
After moving to live at Rogerstown, Kilmoganny, Dr. Marnell acquired livestock, dividing his time between caring for his patients and extensive farming interests.
He had a flair for oil painting, which he found therapeutic and relaxing. It provided him with well-deserved breaks from his medical practice. He liked especially to paint landscapes that included long horned cattle and sleepy-eyed sheep.
It gladdened his heart to see them grazing contentedly, against backdrops of blue summer skies and picturesque hills…in the un-spoilt meadows around Callan or Kilmoganny.
Dr. John Shee hailed from Seven Acres, Mullinahone. When Dr. Ryan vacated the position of Doctor to the Hospital, Dr. Shee took over and served the area with distinction until his death in 1915. He was a regular participant in local concerts. Patrons especially liked his Magic Lantern shows.
He married a Fitzgerald of Kilmanagh and they lived in the house in Mill Street once occupied by Dr. Stuart Ryan. (The Bergins resided there in later years). They had one child, Christine.
Dr. Shee showed no favouritism in his practice, a blessing in an age when society held doctors and clergy in absolute awe. He is reputed to have gone out of his way to tend to people who couldn’t afford any form of medical treatment.
He believed passionately that poverty-stricken patients were entitled to the same standard of health care and treatment as the wealthiest folk in the land.
Dr. Patrick F Walsh was a graduate of the College of Surgeons; Dr. Walsh arrived in Callan in 1878 from Ballyhale. He took up his post at the dispensary in the same year and served as an assistant to Dr. Stuart Ryan at the hospital. His wife was Kathleen Comerford of Ballyfoyle.
Dr. Walsh is best remembered for his heroic work in the closing years of the 19th century, when a killer epidemic nicknamed the “Black Croup” afflicted thousands of children nationwide.
Dr. Walsh saved many young lives and fought valiantly to ease the suffering of countless others whose condition had reached the point of no return before he could treat them. He broke down on many occasions when a child died. Though he did everything he could in every case, some children inevitably failed to pull through.
He shared the pain and almost unbearable grief of their families. He knew that that no words of assurance, or well-worn platitudes, could assuage their heartache and irreplaceable loss.
His heroism was remarkable, especially given the ever-present risk of contracting the dreaded disease himself. His contemporaries hailed him as a kind and compassionate doctor, and all his patients gave him the “thumbs up.”
One of Dr. Patrick Walsh’s sons, Frank, followed in his footsteps.
He took up his post as dispensary doctor in Callan in 1924. He had a stanch loyalty to his regular patients and made a name for himself as a valued contributor to the Old Kilkenny Review, an annual magazine that published high quality articles of historical and archaeological interest.
He dusted off the intriguing but largely forgotten aspects of Callan’s heritage like the Cromwellian attack, the drowning of King Niall Caille in the local river, and stories about town’s great achievers; and brought these to life for readers of all ages.
Dr. Walsh is credited too with ensuring that the priceless Callan Mace did not go the way of so much of Ireland’s heritage. The Mace, which dates to1632, was the traditional staff of office of Callan’s mayors or Sovereigns.
After the disbandment of the Town Commissioners in 1940, it went missing, but turned up again decades later, only to be accidentally thrown away.
It might well have been lost to the community but for Dr. Walsh’s presence of mind. He rescued it from a dump, had it cleaned, and then carefully preserved it so that future generations of locals could appreciate this precious heirloom.
Dr. Walsh’s research and erudition as a local historian paved the way for the formation of a heritage group in Callan, which, alas, he did not live to see.
A man of tremendous energy, he continued to attend his patients after his retirement in 1970 right up to the day of his death in 1978. His wife, Dr. Flora O’ Riordan, and daughter Finola, shared his commitment to local history and Dr. O’ Riordan was a driving force behind Callan’s success in the national Tidy Towns competition in the early 1960s.
The Walsh home Collaire was a former barracks occupied by a James Poe who left it to live at Harleypark. An imposing structure, it stands at Callan’s east corner and is one of the most attractive houses in the area.
To be continued…
