An Edwardian Christmas at Temple Street

TEMPLE Street Hospital has always been a special place
at Christmas, particularly for children.

This has been true ever since the hospital first
opened its doors in 1879 and although its customs may have changed over the
years, the spirit of the season remains the same.

From mid-December, the staff in the

‘big house’ could
be found putting up holly and ivy and by 1912, the first festoons of garlanded
electric light bulbs were also being hung.

Novelty

Christmas cards were another Edwardian novelty. In 1911, the Countess of Aberdeen sent 80 of
these, one for each in-patient with an unusual crib design.

The annual distribution of sixpences and sweetmeats of
Victorian times was also being replaced by an upsurge in gift-giving.

‘A young fellow was weeping copiously’, one visitor
recalled,

‘we later found him sitting in a chair by the fire, a smile on his
little face. Poor little fellow! He had never seen so many toys before in his
life’.

The grateful recipients included a number of Belgian
refugees who were sent to Temple Street for their safety during the Great
War.

The new century had a somewhat tragic start
however. In 1902, hospital physician, Dr
Thomas More Madden died after sustaining an injury in a yachting accident. Because he had been so important to Temple
Street in its formative years, his family decided to honour his memory by
continuing a long-standing tradition.

Each December, a smell of pine filled the front hall
as a batch of fir trees, fresh from the family estate in Tinode, County
Wicklow, were unloaded by horse-drawn cart.

During the late 19th century, these firs had formed
part of the Christmas Tree Féte, an annual event patronised by the Lady
Lieutenant and her entourage.

By the early 1900s, however, the féte had given way to
entertainment more suited to the taste of the in-patients themselves.

Favourite

Throughout it all, Santa remained a firm
favourite. From 1911 onwards, the jolly
elf in his green (or sometimes blue) costume was represented by a member of the
Rotary Club of Ireland, the first such branch to be established outside
America.

Its humanitarian motto was

‘service above self’ and

‘they profit most who serve best’. A
list of the gifts he dispensed at Temple Street in 1914 makes for interesting
reading. Besides toys, we find apples, cakes from the Jacobs biscuit factory in
Bishop Street and in one instance, a box of golf balls.

Another typical Christmas tradition at the hospital
was its annual concert. Every year, about half of the 90 in-patients were well
enough to gather in the large ward on the second floor.

This room lacked a central dividing corridor and was
still laid out much as it had when the house had been in private hands. There,
the children were entertained with dancing and music. Afterwards, each received
a toy, a bag of crackers, a bag of sweets and a Christmas stocking.

Pinnacle

The hospital show reached its pinnacle one December
with the arrival of Miss Dolly Harmer of the Gaiety Theatre and her stage

‘son’, wee Georgie Wood.

The double act that had worked together since 1917
went on to maintain a partnership that lasted over 35 years. Dolly was an
extremely well travelled performer. She
appeared in countries as far flung as Australia and South Africa. Her pairing
with Georgie worked very well, although he was certainly the unhappier of the
two. He had a disability that prevented him from growing any taller than his
four feet, nine inches and in latter years, he came to loathe his billing as
eternal schoolboy

‘Wee’ Georgie.

In some years, such entertainment was badly
needed. In the years before 1919, Irish
winters were relatively mild, but in 1908 and 1914, there was severe snow which
made access to the hospital extremely difficult. For those who hailed from the
local tenements, conditions were particulary harsh.

According to the Irish Times of December 23, 1914, the
children arrived in

‘rags and tatters with nothing to shelter them from the
biting blasts and penetrating frost the city is now experiencing’.

Fortunately, each child was assured of a warm welcome
at Temple Street but such care was challenged by mounting seasonal expenses.
The hospital boilers were coal-fired as were the hearths in all the wards. Through their advertisements, the Mother
Superioress encouraged the public not to forget

‘in the distribution of your
Christmas Alms, the Hospital and Home for Sick Children’.

The secretaries of regional circles of the Moy Mell
Children’s Guild were similarly encouraged to send in

‘warm hood capes for use
in the garden’ and

‘combinations, cotton or woven’.

Treasures

But then, as now, it was the toys that evinced the
most interest. According to an Irish Independent article of December 26, 1908,

‘little faces brightened up with genuine, if transient, delight as they grasped
their treasures’.

Today, it is still easy to imagine this scene for,
despite our modern games and gadgetry, it is the spirit of charity and hope
that reverberated during those far off Edwardian days that continues to
resonate the most.