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| BMS/37 - Front Cover |
Leabar Ultáin, or The Book of Saint Ultan is a collections of pictures and poems by Irish artists and writers. Compiled and arranged by
Katherine MacCormack the volume was published by the Candle Press in 1920, and sold in aid of Saint Ultan's Hospital. Priced at 5 shillings, the volume proved to be a financial success for the hospital, with the annual reports showing it made over £90, the equivalent of about £10,000 in today's money.
The contents lists of those who had contributed poems or artworks to the book contains the names of many of the leading figures in the cultural and political world of the time including
Maud Gonne,
Jack B Yeats,
Æ (George Russell),
Beatrice Elvery and
Thomas Bodkin.
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| Beatrice Elvery's Contribution |
The list also contains names which were already, or were to become, associated with Saint Ultan's Hospital. The artist
Lily Williams (1874-1940) who painted a portrait of
Kathleen Lynn for Saint Ultan's Hospital (now in the RCPI) contributed an image of Saint Ultan to the volume. From the dates of the two works it seems likely she worked on both at much the same time.
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| Alice Stopford Green |
Alice Stopford Green (1847-1929) the Irish Historian and Nationalist contributed an introduction to the volume, which sings the praises of the hospital and the
'women, admitted to the great profession of Medicine, [who] have been pioneers in a work of mercy and science'. Seven years later Alice Stopford Green, by then a Senator, would lay the first stone of a new building for the hospital. Her niece,
Dorothy Stopford Price, would later work at Saint Ultan's Hospital, where much of her research into tuberculosis would be carried out.
Another link to the medical profession can be found in the contribution of
Estella Solomons (1882-1968), the sister of
Bethel Solomons, a leading obstetrician, who would become Master of the Rotunda and President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. Estella had trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, before carrying out further studies in London and Paris. She joined Cumann na mBan about 1918 and was active in the nationalist cause during the War of Independence. Her future husband, the poet
Seamus O'Sullivan (1879-1958), also contributed to The Book of Saint Ultan. The marriage had been opposed by Solomons' parents, as O'Sullivan was not Jewish, and the couple did not marry until 1929, after the death of her parents.
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| Estella Solomons' Contribution |