The Hand of God?

Dr Colm Ó Sé recalls some amusing incidents in his early days as a doctor at St James’s Hospital, when a patient’s religion might very well be a factor in their care plans. Following the Munster Plantations, Bandon in Co Cork was founded in the first decade of the 17th Century. However, for the next hundred years and more, Catholics as well as Non-conformists were not permitted to live within its walls, prompting this protest to be written above the main gate to the town: Turk, Jew, heathen, and atheist, All may enter here except a Papist. Another disgruntled person,…