Spring cleaning
We've been having a bit of a spring clean in the Heritage Centre, getting ready to move things around, with the aim of making room for another reader's desks. Like all archives we have overlooked corners full of, what turned out to be, mostly empty boxes. At the bottom of the pile we came across a box labelled 'Saint Ultan's objects'. It turned out to be a small collection of framed photographs and commemorative plaques which had become separated from the main Saint Ultan's collection.
Three of the photographs commemorate founders of the hospital; Dr Ella Webb, Madeline ffrench-Mullins and Dr Kathleen Lynn; the last two have mounts beautifully decorated with Celtic designs. Like Kathleen Lynn, Madeline ffrench-Mullen was a nationalist and social advocate. She served with Lynn during the 1916 rising and was imprisoned with her. After the rising she and Lynn shared a house until Madeline's death in 1944, as the picture records she was the secretary of Saint Ultan's Hospital from its foundation until her death.
We also found two certificates recording the incorporation of the Hospital as a company in 1921, and a group photograph recording a visit by the British Medical Association to the hospital in 1933. Because of the condition of the frames, and for preservation and storage reasons, I have removed the photographs from their frames and places them instead in mylar sleeves so they can be viewed without being handled directly, they are now ready to be added to the Saint Ultan's collection catalogue.
As well as the photographs we came across three brass plaques commemorating individuals associated with the hospital; Kathleen Lynn, Constance Markiewicz, and Ruaiórċ Ó ConcubairUltan's Hospital archive, and they will probably have to be stored with the College's heritage collections.