The Patient Experience: Handmade birthday card
This birthday card (Reference Number: HI/2023-9/2) is one of several items in our collection made by Helen O’Brien while undergoing treatment for tuberculosis (TB) in the 1950s.
TB, a bacterial infection usually affecting the lungs but also other parts of the body, was widespread in Ireland in the 19th and 20th centuries and at the time when our objects were made, there were approximately 7,000 cases occurring every year.
Patient’s treatment often involved long hospital stays so arts and crafts were a beneficial way of occupying time. Former Minister for Health Dr. Noel Browne (1915-1997), who was instrumental in bringing TB under control in Ireland, worked at Newcastle Sanatorium, Co. Wicklow during Helen’s time there and art classes taught by Breton sculptor Yann Renard-Goulet (1914-1999) were arranged for the patients. The card itself was made using recycled greetings cards and is overlain, rather fittingly, with clear X-ray film, which was likely a readily available material in the sanatoria.
To find out more about the history of TB, see the online exhibition: “The remarkable prevalence of Tuberculosis in Ireland”, curated by Emma Deignan and Rachel Frires.
References
https://www.hpsc.ie/a-z/vaccinepreventable/tuberculosistb/tbfactsheets/
https://heritage.rcpi.ie/Exhibitions