Hospice celebrates anniversary

PICTURED (right) are some of the 600 staff and 330 volunteers who make up the organisation enjoying the summer celebration of Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services 140th Anniversary.

   Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross was established in 1879 by the Congregation of the Religious Sisters of Charity.

   The Congregation was founded in Dublin by Mary Aikenhead in 1815, in response to the grinding poverty pervading the city. 

   The Congregation’s response to the needs of the people was inspired by their motto – Caritas Christi Urget Nos – the love of Christ empowers us.

   At that time the incidence of TB in Dublin was twice that of London and Glasgow while the incidences of typhoid and measles were triple that of London.

   Dublin had the highest death rate of any Continental or North American city in 1889, topped only by Calcutta.

   During her life Mary Aikenhead founded 13 houses around Ireland, all working for the poor, the imprisoned, the sick, the dying and the deprived.

    Last year, hospice services cared for over 4,200 patients across a catchment area of almost a million people.

   In 2003, it opened Blackrock Hospice and will provide palliative care across Wicklow from next year with the opening of the hospice in Magheramore.

   Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services (OLH & CS) is a 200-bed facility that that provides specialist care for those with a wide range of needs.

   Just over 600 staff and 330 volunteers work with residents, patients and their families at a most difficult time in their lives.

   Person-centred care is provided both on-site in Harold’s Cross Hospice and Blackrock Hospice as well as in people’s own homes across South Dublin and Wicklow.